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

The Deputy covered most of the five key industry challenges set out: productivity, affordability and cost; quality and safety; collaboration within the sector; labour shortages, skills and training; and sustainability. The Deputy referred to the town centre first initiative. I totally agree with him in this regard. There was a lot of effort on the part of several Departments to achieve a commitment to putting town centres first, following on much of the advice and guidance associated with the Scottish model, but also building on initiatives that various Departments have been trying over the past couple of years. It was a matter of bringing everybody together to really focus on town centres. There is much opportunity to develop town centres sustainably for the future.

As the Deputy mentioned, there is an option to bring vacant and over-the-shop properties back into use. Several schemes have been launched to encourage this over the past couple of years. Funding under the rent-and-repair scheme has not been drawn down to the level it should have been. In my view, it has not been promoted. However, we are considering new initiatives to encourage people to do the work required through the tax system and grants but also to remove some of the complications and clarify the regulations. A guide to putting vacant properties back into use was printed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage a couple of years ago. It is a very useful step-by-step guide for anybody with such a property. I encourage everybody to read it. We are trying to make it as easy as possible to bring the vacant properties back into use because they should be in use. In most cases, as in Tipperary and everywhere else, they are in private ownership. We are trying to unlock them in different ways.

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