Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I want to put it on the record that I asked him about this scheme on 5 April and I received a reply from him today. I asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will report on a new Croí Cónaithe fund under Housing for All to increase owner-occupier apartment developments in city centres. I know it is a city-focused scheme. In his reply, the Minister stated his Department is currently working with the Housing Agency on finalising the operational basis for the new fund and it expects to engage with prospective proposers in the call for proposals in the second quarter of 2022. If the Minister or his officials are listening, I would be pleased if I could get greater clarity as to when that is happening because it would facilitate a lot of accommodation opportunities over the shop or commercial premises to turn them into residential spaces. What is not known out there is the number of schemes that are available for towns. The biggest impediment to somebody in a town or city converting what was a commercial premises into a residential premises, where there are perhaps intergenerational owners, is that they are not going to make the leap towards converting to residential with all of the attendant grants that are available because the capital cost of doing so is still too high. They may be asset rich but cash poor and they are at pains to take the risk of borrowing. There are hundreds of towns throughout the country where we have lost capacity on the main street, where shops and commercial premises have closed.

There are many people who would like to live in towns, people who are downsizing and want to be closer to services on the main street, which would free up many houses. Yet, people do not perceive that there is anything in place for them to be able to do that. We need more schemes that are fasttracked. There should be a treatment in planning that could facilitate that and that could allow for better funding of it.

On the Labour Party's Residential Tenancies (Tenants' Rights) Bill 2021, there remains a huge imbalance in power between renters and landlords. Our Bill focuses on issues relating to quality of rental accommodation. We need to get solid commitments when it comes to security of tenure. That is ultimately the bedrock upon which renters’ rights are based. I will return to the issues on which I spoke in relation to Mitchelstown and Mallow, for instance. These are two examples of two typical towns. The capacity constraints and the infrastructural constraints will require that more people will be in rented accommodation for longer. That market trend for rent is going upwards. The housing assistance payment, HAP, is not meeting pace with demand. There needs to be a rights-based approach for tenants for the duration of this housing crisis. That is what we advocated for in that Bill. I ask that that Bill would be looked at again.

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