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

I thank the Deputies. There is a lot of work being done right across government to bring vacant and derelict buildings back into use. In the Department of Rural and Community Development, my focus is on utilising those buildings that are not really suitable for housing but can be converted for community use. Under the building acquisition measure, which was a new measure I introduced last year, we gave the funding to the local authorities to purchase the buildings that they identified with local groups so that they could convert them into community use. As I said, there are some buildings used as remote working hubs and enterprise spaces.

It is important to say that we live in a changing world. This idea that we are going to have high street shops in every town is changing. If there are young teenagers in one's house, or young people, one only has to look at the number of calls the DPD van or An Post makes with regard to online shopping.

We have to take cognisance of the fact things are changing. I want to bring more people back into communities through remote working and enterprise hubs. That in itself increases the footfall. We are working with the local authorities and the Town Centre First officers to achieve that.

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