Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. There is one other anomaly in that a house must have been built before 1993. There are lots of houses built since then that are vacant because they were never completed. People emigrated because they ran out of work or whatever when the economy went bust. The houses are there, and there is potential to create more living accommodation.

I return to the point I made about the exemption from planning. I saw an example yesterday whereby permission was refused for the conversion of three units from commercial use to residential use even though there would be no proposed change to the overall structure. The reason given is that it was deemed to be a development rather than three units. I will bring the details of the case to the Minister. It is important for us to promote the scheme and also the other scheme the Minister mentioned because there is potential in them.

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