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

I thank Deputies Griffin, Dillon, Carey and Stanton for raising this issue today. It brings me back to my previous role and part of the job I liked but did not make as much progress on as I would have liked to, because tackling vacancy and dereliction are essential parts of our work. Tonight, I will take this debate on behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and specifically the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke.

We all know the importance of this issue. It is important that we use the new housing for all strategy as a way to focus our minds on this to get delivery, and to build on the work started in Rebuilding Ireland, which was far from being completed. I will tease through the issues raised by each Deputy. I wish to flag on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, that he will, very soon, publish the town-centre first framework, which will respond to the programme for Government aim to develop our town centres and build outwards. The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, has chaired this across three Departments, including the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Department of Rural and Community Development, and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. That should help us with a comprehensive strategy. Deputy Carey referred to the need to join all the dots and bring all Departments around the table, and our agencies, in order that we can drive on to address the issue of vacancies in our towns, villages and even parts of our cities as well. Vacant properties are misused assets. All the resources are generally there when it comes to water, sewage and so on. We need to find ways to make that happen.

Local authorities need to drive on with this and make it happen, as was touched on by Deputy Carey. Deputy Stanton is right in that we need to put them in a position to be able to do that. We have had this conversation before over many years. We need to put more money into the vacant housing teams and for officers in each county, and certainly in the larger counties, where there is more opportunity. I was in Cork recently, where one can drive around and see all the vacant properties. They are in every county as well. There are probably not as many as the census stated but there is a large number. If we can get this right, there are possibly 50,000 or 60,000 potential homes in the country. It is, therefore, important that we put the pressure on.

I will raise this directly with the Ministers and Ministers of State involved the need, under the Housing for All strategy, to allocate more money to the vacancy officers. There is a unit in the Department responsible for co-ordinating this work. It has put a lot of effort into that and has designed manuals. The importance of an easy manual in order that a house can be repaired was also referred to. Deputy Dillon raised the point about making it easy to take on an empty property or derelict house. One can use the manual published by the Department. It gives a step-by-step approach on how to cut through some of the perceived red tape to bring a house into use.

Deputy Griffin raised a number of issues. He probably speaks faster than do I, so I will try to deal with all four or five of them during this debate. On the planning exemptions, the intention is to extend them to make it easier to tackle these vacant properties or previous commercial properties to bring them into use as a house. All of us recognise the benefits of having families and people back living in our towns. It provides them with homes and breathes life back into our towns and villages from a job creation point of view as well. The Deputy is right about the repair and leasing scheme. It was something he brought forward in recognition at the time that people who own these properties do not necessarily have the cash to do them up, and are in need of a grant or an incentive of some sort. To be fair, that could have worked but it did not. It probably focused too much on social housing and a positive change to that would be to include housing for anybody. We get a return on that money and it is money well spent. It is something the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is clearly considering, but I will certainly raise it with him too. Having tax breaks to encourage this is the same thing, in that it provides some sort of assistance because it is costly in some cases. While it is value for money in the long run, someone needs to provide the money upfront to make it happen and that is where assistance is needed.

The help to buy scheme was originally introduced to bring in new supply, but at this stage we should accept that an empty house, vacant for many years, is as good as new supply if it can be brought back into use. I will raise that and some way to extend that scheme with the Minister as well. Planning fees and exemptions can be worked on. Local authorities could take the lead on that. I understand that they have the scope, when it comes to planning contributions, to make changes in recognition that the infrastructure is there, and likewise, with reconnection fees. Generally, those agencies will work with people as well. There is a lot of potential here and I thank Deputies Griffin, Dillon, Carey and Stanton for raising this issue and I will certainly bring their concerns back to the Minister and Minister of State.

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