Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

These are good ideas. Some of the kinds of things about which the Deputy talks are happening. For example, the Department introduced a scheme whereby local authorities could provide grant aid to people who own homes to upgrade them and make them suitable to rent or lease to the local authority. That scheme had limited success and must therefore be reviewed and tweaked. More generally, I note that in the last 12 months, over 2,500 vacant homes have been brought back into use, largely with the support of local authorities and approved housing bodies. Funding is available to allow local authorities to target towns and villages strategically, upgrade them and provide social housing options for relocating families from other areas. We have a very active town and village renewal scheme which is being led energetically by the Minister for Rural and Community Affairs, Deputy Ring. I was with him in Castletownroche this week where we discussed the impact of town and village renewal nationally. A great deal is already available to local authorities and villages and towns if they want to put plans together to provide more housing. There have been some good examples of that. What Deputy Harty requests, however, is a central point within the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to look at this area strategically and in greater detail. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to respond to the Deputy directly on that. There is a space for people who want to relocate out of Dublin, Cork, Galway or Limerick where there are pressures on the housing lists to towns and villages which may not be too far away. The management of that is something the Department is willing to look at. However, there is nothing to stop local authorities using their initiative on those kinds of solutions in towns and villages and to look for funding from the Department to take action today. Perhaps, there could be a bit more co-ordination in that regard. I can ask the Minister to talk to Deputy Harty about it, if that would be helpful.

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