Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. She is right that the fund is being rolled out through the local authorities. As to the flexibility, I am not all over the detail but you can get €30,000. If the refurbishment costs are expected to exceed the standard grant of €30,000 then a maximum top-up grant of up to €20,000 will be available where the property is confirmed to be derelict. This brings the total grant available for a derelict property up to a maximum of €50,000. Applications are to be made to the vacant homes officer in the relevant local authority, so maybe that officer could write to the Department to see if there is any flexibility in that. I take the Deputy's point and fully understand where she is coming from because I am sure we will all be getting these same questions in our constituency offices. As far as my role in town centre renewal and regeneration is concerned, there are a number of funds there. Only this year I gave local authorities funding of €400,000 to acquire buildings. These are old buildings in the towns, be that the Garda station, the old post office, bank or whatever. Each local authority was given €400,000 and they could identify two properties and buy them to turn them over to community use. The Deputy knows there are loads of other initiatives for addressing dereliction and bringing new life back into our towns.

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