Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to contribute to this debate on the impact of the Government’s five-year policy for rural Ireland. In the limited time I have I will touch on some aspects of the plan. It is a cross-government plan and I commend the work of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys.

I am travelling the country to all the local authorities at the moment so I am seeing first-hand what is happening on the ground. First, I will mention the Croí Cónaithe scheme. We are very proud of the scheme. As of today, we have received 2,480 applications which is significant. We had an initial target of 2,500 and we will significantly beat that. Some 890 have been approved. I want that scheme to be a real success. It is very straightforward: it offers €50,000 if a house was built prior to 2007 and was vacant for two years. It offers an additional €20,000 or €70,000 if it is deemed derelict and then there are SEAI grants on top of that. Further, it is important to remember that over-the-shop units also apply. If someone has a building where there is a shop operating on the ground floor but they can prove that overhead has been vacant for more than two years, then they qualify for the €50,000. They do not qualify for the €70,000 because it is not derelict because there is activity on the ground floor. This is a very straightforward scheme. It covers every square inch of the Republic: rural, urban, towns and cities. It is very simple: the property must be built prior to 2007 and vacant for more than two years. Furthermore, it now applies to rental properties too. There are a couple of provisos. First, you can only qualify for either scheme, rental or owner occupier, once. If I buy a house I can live in it under the Croí Cónaithe scheme. I can equally buy another house and do it up but that is it. I cannot do up two houses for rental and cannot do up two houses to live in them. It is a very fair and straightforward scheme and I want to promote it.

The town centre first scheme is in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development. In every county, one town is designated in the first phase. They must have plans in by 30 June which is only a short time away. We want to see those plans submitted and for them to be ambitious and to be rolled out. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has appointed regeneration officers in each of those towns to deal with town centre first and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has appointed vacant homes officers. We want to encourage anyone who has a house that they feel would qualify under the Croí Cónaithe scheme to contact their local authority and look to apply.

There was mention of rural planning guidelines earlier. We are looking at it but we should remember that rural houses are still being built. In the last year, just less than 7,000 were built in 2022 and just less than 7,500 the previous year. I take the point about wanting people to return to live in their rural parishes. That is something that we are very conscious of in the Department. I commend the scheme.

The most important thing is that we want rural Ireland to thrive. Deputy Sherlock spoke about rural communities coming together. They are the lifeblood. The town centre first scheme is centred on that. I want to encourage community groups in the towns and villages to come together and look at buildings which they want to fund through the Croí Cónaithe scheme. The Deputy is correct that local authorities are purchasing units in various areas. It is available under the Minister’s rural regeneration fund and is something we want to look at too.

There is a lot done and a bit more to do. Rural Ireland is very much the lifeblood of this Government.

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