Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Dillon for his question. I know he is a great advocate in this area as I have been to Mayo and have seen at first hand the work Mayo County Council has carried out and the lobbying Deputy Dillon has been doing.

I am happy to confirm that a circular has been issued in the past 24 hours to increase by 20% the funding that has been attached to the vacant homes office. We also now have a plan to transition all vacant homes officer posts into full-time positions. Heretofore, as Members will be aware, only three counties in the 31-strong local authority network had a full-time vacant homes officer. We expect by quarter 2 of 2022 to complete the transition and have that as a full-time service throughout the 31-strong local authority network.

It is also very important to note that we will have a training workshop this week, on Thursday, to try to expedite this because it is such an urgent issue and to stitch into the key funding that is available. We have seen the significant funding Castlebar has got under the urban regeneration and development fund and the huge opportunities there will now be for places in Mayo through Croí Cónaithe and the funding that will flow through that to enhance the potential of derelict properties and vacant homes and to get them back into residential use. There are also the new regulations we will update in the coming week. They will mean that old commercial properties like pubs and derelict properties will not need planning permission to transition into residential units.

We, therefore, have a significant amount of work ongoing, on which I am happy to update Deputy Dillon.

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