Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to clarify a number of points. This is different from the way in which these motions are normally dealt with. The committee clashed last week and we did not get a full chance to discuss this in detail. If it is of help to Deputy Barry Cowen, I have here a copy of the reply to the letter he raised with the Minister. It deals with and brings clarity to many of the questions Deputy Cowen raised. I reassure the House that what is proposed is absolutely not a dumbing down of the building control regulations; it concerns an exemption from planning permission only. All the regulations on fire safety and so on will not change. Regarding the discussion about the guidance document, Deputy Cowen has asked that it come back before the House. I am happy to commit to that. I committed at the committee yesterday to do that. However, that is a matter of the desire to make it easier for these properties to be brought back into use. The guidance as of today exists until we have a discussion about it. There is no dumbing down whatsoever of the standards of these houses. That is not what we are encouraging here. What we are trying to do with these exemptions is to reflect the workings of this House, what all Deputies seek and what we want. The aim of Fianna Fáil's Bill, our recommendation in the Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness and the discussion at the committee is that these vacant buildings be brought back into use for residential purposes. That is what this is about. I acknowledge that most people here agree on that and I accept we did not get a chance to discuss it at the committee. I was there, and the way the committee landed did not suit. To put the House at ease, this is not a dumbing down of the quality of these houses.

If any change is made to parking guidelines with the new apartment guidelines that are coming through, it would change for this as well, but only if there are changes in that regard. There is no way around that.

To respond to Deputy Jan O'Sullivan's comments on funding, there are a number of schemes in this regard. Deputy Cowen referred to the repair-and-leasing scheme. I, for one, had hoped that would have worked a lot better. I am still not sure why it did not. We are making changes to the scheme to try to make it more attractive. To me, it was a good scheme even before any change. It is more attractive now but it needs to be pushed and encouraged, and I have asked local authorities to use the scheme to encourage people to bring forward accommodation for social housing. There is also funding through the purchase-and-renew scheme. Local authorities can buy up derelict or vacant properties, repair them and bring them back into use. There are other streams of funding as well. We want to tackle vacancy and dereliction as much as we possibly can. The aim of this exemption is to make it easier for those properties to be brought back into use and make the process less confusing and less costly, avoiding the need for the contributions people would have to pay. However, again, the scheme is only for developments of up to nine dwellings. We are not in favour of letting anyone avoid the social housing requirements under Part V.

To answer Deputy Mattie McGrath's questions about Irish Water, it cannot take part in Part 8.

See this speech in context