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

I thank Deputies for their contributions. It has been very interesting and worthwhile to hear different perspectives from all sides of the House.

Towns and villages are at the heart of many important administrative, social, community and recreational functions. They also support clusters of local services, have a significant share of homes and jobs and act as important and vital transport hubs. We want to ensure they remain resilient places, with vibrant, inclusive communities and a strong cultural and social fabric that can continue to deliver a good quality of life for future generations. The Government recognises that many Irish towns have already implemented significant place-making initiatives that have had a transformative effect on the town centre environment and people's sense of place. These exemplars have provided the template that is a starting point for place-making under our town centre first policy. The Government, through this policy, has developed a robust framework to support the dynamic and multifaceted nature of what makes Irish towns vibrant and enjoyable places to live. The 33 unique actions contained in the policy will create a cohesive and effective national framework for town regeneration that will drive supports for our towns, including the tools and resources they need to become more viable and attractive places in which to live, work, visit and run a business.

The town centre first policy will build on the expertise already apparent in the local government sector to ensure the policy agenda locally is linked to investment streams that will enable impactful initiatives to be realised, through connecting locally based projects with national funding programmes. Local authorities are well placed to work with their local communities in formulating specific actions at a local level, through the town centre first plan process, to ensure the proposals are based on local knowledge and are combined with technical support and concrete measures, including access to funding. This will help to drive and implement the policy successfully. The establishment of a dedicated town centre first regeneration officer post across local authorities will serve a critical co-ordination function at local level. The regeneration officer will play an essential role in mobilising, encouraging and supporting local town teams across his or her administrative area. Provision of €2 million in funding has been made for this role.

The town centre first policy is underpinned by an understanding that the structures developed at both national and local authority level must serve to identify, foster and enable the local expertise, hard work and pride of place that already are found within local communities throughout Ireland. That is why the policy has placed the development of new town teams, or support of existing teams, at its core. By harnessing the drive of local residents, business people, community representatives and others to see their home towns thrive and prosper, for the benefit of residents and visitors alike, the town centre first policy can tap into a unique and irreplaceable resource. I am confident that with the help of the supports established under the policy, town teams across the country will establish themselves as empowered drivers of regeneration and growth.

The delivery of the town centre first strategy at a local level, regardless of the scale or category of the town, will be underpinned by an assessment of the current position of the town and the development of a plan that provides a vision for its future direction. The local expertise and understanding of the unique strengths of individual towns that can be garnered from the town teams will be a critical input into these plans. The national town centre first office and local authorities will support the teams in developing their own town centre first plans and ensuing they are aligned with local, regional and national regeneration strategies. Town centre first plans will serve to maximise the impact of investment from a range of funding streams available for town regeneration across a number of Departments and State agencies, including the URDF and the RRDF, which are already investing more than €600 million in regeneration projects in towns throughout the country. The initial 26 town centre first plans have already been funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development under phase 1 of the scheme. They will provide a vital input into the process as a whole and help to develop a roadmap for future plans.

As I outlined earlier, this focus on capturing and sharing knowledge and best practice established at a local level across a national framework is a key element of the town centre first strategy. We recognise there are already many towns in Ireland that are successfully undertaking actions and initiatives related to regeneration. They are organising locally to progress local development projects and programmes to improve their towns' environment and economy. The town centre first policy appreciates the significant benefits that can be gained by communities and their towns learning from each other and sharing experiences, particularly towns that have similar characteristics and contexts and which face common challenges to development. There is great value in exchanging and developing best-practice approaches to the many aspects of town regeneration, such as helping all to progress and develop, hearing from each other and learning from mistakes that were made in the past.

The establishment of the town centre first regeneration officer role and the national town centre first office will offer a new forum to identify and share lessons learned with towns and villages across the country. In addition, a number of pathfinder and early-stage towns will be identified nationally to act as early priority demonstrators of the town centre first approach. These selected towns will be at different stages of the process, from background research and analysis, preparation of the town centre first plan and project development to plan implementation and delivery. Pathfinders will involve a focused collaboration of the funders and agencies involved. The toolkit of best practice that will be established will assist towns that have not had capacity to shape their own development. By developing a roadmap to support towns that are at early stages in the town centre first process, we can maximise the impact of investment in town centre regeneration.

I am happy to have had the opportunity to outline the town centre first strategy today. The policy, as it has been developed by both my Department and the Department of Rural and Community Development, recognises the dynamic and multifaceted nature of what makes Irish towns vibrant and enjoyable places in which to live and work. Increasing the availability of new homes within towns is a key focus of the policy. Towns need people if they are to be successful and full of life.

A number of Deputies referred to the problem of derelict properties. Providing new homes for our citizens in towns, close to existing amenities, employment, education and local services, makes sense for everyone. The forthcoming funding schemes to tackle vacancy and dereliction problems in towns, namely, the Croí Cónaithe fund and the CPO programme, will provide practical supports to aid the redevelopment of building stock, thereby bringing life back into the streets of our towns on a permanent basis.

We are acutely aware of the potential to reuse and redevelop existing buildings for new homes. We need to assist people in a variety of ways to ensure the buildings we see vacant and derelict in our towns are brought back into residential use, each becoming a new home with the town on its doorstep. We have signalled, through the Housing for All plan, that by the second quarter of this year, every local authority should have its own full-time vacant homes officer. We have increased funding by 20% to achieve that. When local authorities are making decisions on prioritising their work programmes, it should not be the case that individuals working in the vacant homes office are also dealing with broadband provision, for example, and a variety of other tasks. Councils must be more co-ordinated in seeking to unlock the potential that lies right in front of them.

Deputy Calleary referred to the one-off rural housing policy. We are awaiting the successor draft document on the future sustainable development of rural housing. I am very clear in being aligned with his thinking in terms of how we understand and acknowledge that demand and develop it in a way that underwrites our citizens' rights and gives them the opportunity to avail of a secure rural life. That is very important and I eagerly await the draft document. It is important to understand that the town centre first policy is not only about town centres; it is trying to achieve a balance in terms of making our towns more vibrant, unlocking the potential in our brownfield sites, bringing back derelict properties, place-making and ensuring our neighbourhoods are liveable places. We also need to be very clear in looking after the outskirts of those towns. There are areas in rural Ireland that need to be accommodated. It is about getting a balance and I am hopeful we will be able to achieve that, with the co-operation of Members right across the House. It can be a divisive issue but we really want to work together to find a reasonable solution.

Several Deputies raised issues around the Housing for All plan.

We have a co-ordinated approach with increased funding of €5 billion for Irish Water. This is again seeking to unlock the potential of many settlements that are unfortunately held up because they do not have the key infrastructure. We are getting to a stage where items are plan-led as opposed to having loads of land zoned and the State not being able to predict where to put the infrastructure. We are getting around to that space now.

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