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

To Deputy Dillon I will say that we will launch our Town Centre First initiative very shortly, in the coming weeks. That will be an enabling strategy to tie together a lot of the funding streams to which he referred in order to unlock the potential of our rural towns and villages right across the country. That will be a significant intervention by the Government.

Deputy Stanton is fully correct. There has been a huge problem in respect of full-time vacant homes officers. We are now increasing the funding significantly, by 20%. With additional funding coming into local authorities, we hope they will make the best decisions with the resources they have. Staffing is a matter for the chief executive, but there is a huge open goal to be scored here in bringing derelict or vacant sites back into residential use because the demand for them is definitely there. It just needs additional work to try to unlock that potential.

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