Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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I wish to raise with the Minister of State the possibility of using the Finance Act, in particular the Living City initiative contained within the Act, as a blueprint for the regeneration of towns and villages throughout the country. I acknowledge that this initiative was limited to the cities of Limerick and Waterford. It was most welcome but I also welcome the announcement which succeeded it at the end of last week concerning the new economic and spatial plan for Limerick 2030, which will involve a €250 million plan. This is very good news for both Limerick and the entire mid-west region of Clare, Kerry and north Tipperary which badly needs a new, reinvigorated, regional capital.

I return to the Living City initiative which recognises that historical city centres have suffered from the relocation of family homes and businesses to the suburbs, something that is obvious to any visitor to Limerick. However, this neglect of city centres was exacerbated by the reckless planning that marked the Celtic tiger era and the decade which preceded its lift-off. That sort of neglect and the exodus of family homes and businesses from city centres is not limited to cities but is evident also in both larger and smaller towns throughout the country that were once historical market towns.

I will focus on County Clare because it is the constituency I know best but this problem is not in any way unique to that county and is something we can see all through the country. One need barely leave Limerick to see it but can take the road either to O'Briens Bridge or Broadford, both of which are old historic villages. The first was linked to the canal and transport but since the Shannon schemes it has effectively lapsed. If one drives up the main street one sees a number of fronts that, although they are not of great, important, international, architectural significance, very much reflect the Irish vernacular. The same is true of Broadford. We see small shop fronts and former family homes, where the tradition was for people to have a store or a pub and live above it. Now, neither the store nor the pub is occupied and nobody is living above. The same is true right across the country.

That is not to say these towns and villages have been sitting around doing nothing, watching the decay continue without seeking to arrest it. In Clare, as throughout the country I presume, there are a number of important innovations taking place whereby communities are seeking to address their problems and fight back to give life again to their town centres. In Kilkee there was a recently published draft of a town improvement and economic development plan for 2013-24. Killaloe has just published a tidy towns and environmental improvement strategy, and Scariff likewise. This is happening right across County Clare and is mirrored everywhere. However, the fundamental reality is that no matter what plans communities come up with it is very difficult, especially in the current environment, to finance those plans. What was particularly innovative about the Living City initiative was that it provided tax incentives to people to reinvigorate those historic centres. It is important to bear in mind this was a different measure to the one brought in by the previous Government during the Celtic tiger years in that it was not developer-led. Then, a great number of properties were developed without any end use in mind. The Living City initiative was occupier-led. People who owned these buildings sought to return them to their historical use, thereby reinvigorating towns and villages throughout the country.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I agree with him concerning the very significant announcement made in Limerick city at the tail end of last week about boosting that great city which, if one looks at the statistics as I did in preparation for this debate, has the highest overall rate of unemployment, including male unemployment, of each of the five gateway cities. There is a particular problem here that must be addressed. As the Deputy noted, the objective of the announcement made by the Minister for Finance in the Finance Act was to produce an incentive which is not developer-led, which encourages people not only to live in these great homes but also to produce 10% of the costs up-front, both for refurbishment purposes and to prove their bona fides. We are not going back to some kind of grandiose, entirely developer-led, tax incentive scheme where developers take no risk whatsoever. As the Deputy is well aware, a tax break or incentive is a form of subsidy which the general taxpayer has to make available. We have to use the scheme in a very focused way that encourages the regeneration and redevelopment of our great cities, in particular where there is either a difficulty in retail areas or, as in this case, where there are the great Georgian houses that are such a central feature of Waterford and Limerick cities.

We see this very much as a pilot scheme, as the Minister stated in the course of his remarks on Second and Committee Stages of the Finance Bill. He has made it clear he will look on this designation for other parts of the country and I can confirm to the Deputy there have already been submissions for a form of redesignation in other parts. That will obviously be a matter for the Minister in consultation with Cabinet colleagues in advance of any further Finance Bill. We need to learn the lessons of the past decade and a half where much of this work was developer-led, as the Deputy noted, and did not lead to any great advancement or additionality for our cities. On the contrary, it led to poor quality build, over use of apartments and a bad use of resources. To reiterate, this form of incentive was effectively a form of subsidy.

I very much hope we can proceed on an incremental basis in this regard. Whether this will be extended to other areas, such as the Deputy referred to, is a matter for the Minister. We will have an open mind and the policy will be reviewed on a constant basis in terms of the actual Finance Bill. My understanding is that Pobal, the State agency with responsibility for building up capacity in local communities and sending out statistics about levels of deprivation, has a very clear scoring methodology in its work. It has a myriad of measurements for deprivation. It would seem to me that in any further advancements or extensions of this scheme to areas throughout the country by way of tax incentives we should be mindful of the statistics and the evidence. We should be mindful of where the greatest rates of unemployment and deprivation lie and apply these tax breaks and incentives in a sparing but exact way towards that problem.

Obviously, I did not read the supplied speech.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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I am glad the Minister of State did not do so, given its content. I do not in any way advocate a return to section 23 - the Department might well have concerns about that. Many people would, because to return to that section would merely be to go back to what was wrong without having learned anything. What was introduced in the Living City initiative was very targeted, as the Minister of State noted. It was not a blanket scheme. The Minister of State mentioned the great Georgian homes of Ireland. In addition, there are the merchant houses that used to mark every town and village in the country, which have now fallen into decay. They are a very important part of the streetscape of practically every town and village in Ireland. They usually have very fine slate roofs, slates that are in many instances falling off those roofs and posing a danger to passersby.

I very much welcome the Minister of State's proposal that objective criteria for deprivation and other factors be put in place but there is another criterion, namely, heritage value, whether architectural or historical. Every local authority in Ireland has a heritage officer, and in many instances a heritage section employing architects. It would not and should not be beyond county councils to draw up a list of the key buildings that exist in practically every town and village.

In many instances these merchant homes which contained a family living over a shop or bar dating from the Victorian period, or sometimes earlier, have fallen into decay as the families moved into fine bungalows in the suburbs and left the main street to decay. While I do not advocate a return of section 23, a case can be made for tax incentives to reinvigorate smaller towns and villages.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's argument is well made and we have received submissions along the lines he described. I understand the Act defines a Georgian house as a building constructed between 1714 and 1830. He could argue that his market house, which was a centre of commerce during that period, might be covered by that definition. We have received submissions from interested parties on extending the Georgian house incentives to markets and other buildings. The Minister is considering these submissions and has an open mind on the matter although, needless to say, he does not want to extend the scheme so wide that it would allow a repeat of the kind of nonsense we saw in the past. Equally, however, if a broader definition could help regeneration in the areas to which the Deputy referred, including in particular historic market towns, this is something he will consider.