Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Carey asked about Croí Conaithe, which as we know is a grant of between €30,000 and €50,000 to repair and bring back into use a building for residential purposes in small towns and villages. The Deputy proposes extending it to rural areas. I like that idea and think it makes a lot of sense but we need to take a little time to see what the take-up is like on the existing scheme. We do not know yet whether the €30,000 to €50,000 is going to be enough to move the dial or what the take-up is going to be. However, in principle, if it works and if we get take-up in the towns and villages, why would we not extend to rural areas too? That makes sense to me but let us see what the take-up is first before we start changing the scheme. I do not think that will take too long; we will know in a matter of months.

In answer to Deputy Ó Cathasaigh's question, I signed off on a memo in relation to that Bill only in the last couple of weeks. We expect to have heads of new legislation early next year. That will be the general scheme and will go to committee for scrutiny. We agree we need to update our legislation in that area to bring it more in line with company law and the protections that come with that.

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