Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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10. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his proposals for renewal of town centre sites; and if he is considering legislation to allow the utilisation of compulsory purchase orders for the purpose of town renewal. [18556/16]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am sharing my time with Deputy Lawless. The Minister of State, Deputy English, is well aware that there are many towns and villages with empty, dilapidated buildings that are not contributing to the well-being of the communities in which they are situated. The associated issues may concern title, conveyancing, lack of funds, banks not lending and no retail activity. As we know, this is against the backdrop of a housing crisis or emergency. Will the Minister of State confirm he is investigating ways in which compulsory purchase orders, CPO, powers for local authorities could be improved or council-sponsored loans or grants could be made available to initiate residential development in these buildings and revitalise the affected towns and villages?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The new programme for partnership Government sets out the ambitious priority attached to urban regeneration by the new Government. This is an area in which we wish to engage, specifically by redesigning and enhancing the current scheme. A series of specific actions has been set out as to how it is proposed to facilitate the regeneration of our urban centres, many of which were adversely impacted by our recent economic difficulties.

In this context, the Government intends to introduce a new town and village renewal scheme. This is part of my brief and it will be done in conjunction with the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, to support the revitalisation of our towns and villages and improve the living and working environment of communities. As Deputy Cowen stated, the objective will be to bring buildings back into use and make towns and villages attractive places not only to work and live but also to expand business or bring buildings back into use. Using the €30 million available to local authorities for town and village regeneration from this year, it is envisaged that the scheme will seek to increase the attractiveness and sustainability of our towns and villages as places to live and work. I visited Clara yesterday and while it is not a small town, it is under severe pressure, with 64 empty premises on its streets. The focus will, as Deputy Cowen stated, be on bringing empty premises back into use and trying to make upstairs accommodation liveable again, where possible.

It is also intended to examine a series of further initiatives, including the introduction of a similar scheme to the Living City initiative to regenerate urban centres and villages; reclassifying and incentivising the use of under-utilised or vacant areas above ground floor premises in urban areas for both residential and commercial use; examining the scope to reform the Derelict Sites Act to tackle the under-use and hoarding of derelict land by the State, semi-State and private sectors; and the establishment of a national register of derelict sites, in addition to the new vacant site levy, to bring vacant and under-utilised sites into beneficial use for housing and urban regeneration purposes. The vacant site levy is a form of threat, whereas Deputy Cowen is seeking the introduction of measures to encourage and reward activity. Such measures will be considered as part of our new plan and we will examine the possibility of mandating local authorities with better land management powers, including the possibility of additional CPO capabilities. Deputy Cowen's question refers to these capabilities.

To drive forward these considerations, I will chair a working group comprising senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and other relevant actors, which has been established to bring forward proposals in the near future and allow proposals to be made to increase funding in this area in budget 2017.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his answer, which is all well and good. We both share a willingness to address this issue and revitalise towns and villages that have become dilapidated and lack vitality and vibrancy and, in many cases, do not have any residents. The Minister of State did not refer to compulsory purchase orders, CPOs.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I did refer to CPOs.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I listened attentively and he did not. I ask him to confirm that he will seek to improve existing powers to enable local authorities to overcome obstacles related to property rights, title, conveyancing and associated issues. Will he seek to secure funding, either on-balance or off-balance sheet, in respect of what we spoke about earlier? Will local authorities be involved in sponsoring a scheme or will they work with credit unions which are interested in entering the fray? Negotiations have been ongoing for too long on the contribution credit unions could make to resolving the crisis. Will a sponsored scheme or a system of grants or loans be introduced for the private sector and will improved compulsory purchase order powers be provided to local authorities to bring derelict and vacant buildings into residential development and create vibrancy and vitality where there currently are none?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I accept that I may speak a little fast.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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That is true.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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However, in listing the actions we are considering I clearly stated that we were considering the possibility of "mandating local authorities with better land management powers, including the possibility of additional CPO capabilities". I am sorry if that was not clear.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister of State give a commitment on that issue?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I also noted the reference to compulsory purchase orders in the Deputy's question. While local authorities have some powers in the area of compulsory purchase orders, they clearly do not consider them to be sufficiently strong. We are willing to examine this issue. Other State body stakeholders have CPO powers which are not being used. We will see what we can do to increase the use of these powers, where they are required.

As Deputy Cowen will be aware from his professional background, compulsory purchase orders are highly complicated and give rise to legal issues. CPOs do not always work and local authorities have indicated to me that they sometimes retreat from using them because they involve investing significant time and money which they would prefer to use to achieve specific purposes. Local authorities that pursue CPOs or other planning issues frequently lose the money they spend on doing so. We are, therefore, trying to find new ways to encourage activity. Deputy Cowen referred to grants, taxes and so forth. We will examine these options to try to reward activity as opposed to always threatening action. We are examining these issues and we are willing to act.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I understand Deputy Lawless will contribute for one minute.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Legislation on compulsory purchase orders needs to be upgraded and strengthened. I come straight from the front line, as it were, having dealt with this issue extensively as a member of Kildare County Council until my election to the Dáil three months ago. There appears to be great reluctance among local authorities to utilise the powers available to them. While I have heard many reasons for not using compulsory purchase orders, I have heard few reasons to use them. The existing derelict sites legislation gives local authorities powers to act. Dublin City Council appears to be better than other local authorities in this regard, having expressed an intention to intervene. Other councils require ministerial direction to move them towards taking action.

In the same vein, if we are using a carrot and stick approach and the use of a compulsory purchase order is the stick, the carrot must be the introduction of a rates incentive. I suggest the Department consider this possibility. When I tabled a proposal for a rates incentive in Kildare County Council I was informed that while my proposal could be sent to the Department, not one suggestion sent to the Department by any local authority in the past 30 years had been approved. That does not seem to be a great way to do business. I call on the Minister to examine the possibility of using rates incentives to encourage people to invest in revitalising vacant buildings and developing accommodation in them.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Deputies Cowen and Lawless outlined the issues the Department intends to examine. We will consider a range of carrot and stick measures. Deputy Lawless will be familiar with the Supreme Court decision on a case arising in County Kildare. That decision affects any change to legislation governing CPOs that we may consider. This is a complicated area that involves a number of statutes and legislative change cannot be introduced in one week. We will consider the issue, however.

Deputy Lawless raised an issue that is dear to my heart. Urban local authorities, especially in Dublin, have much more funding available to them through revenue generation and other State schemes. As such, they are in a position to use the legal and planning systems to a much greater degree than other local authorities and the latter may, therefore, be afraid to risk money on legal cases. Local authorities may have to make a choice between fixing a roads and footpaths or making a compulsory purchase order. CPOs require a significant investment which can go down the swanee if it does not work out. We understand the reason local authorities are reluctant to use compulsory purchase orders and we must find a way of making the legislation clearer. However, as Deputy Cowen will know given his legal background, it is difficult to design legislation that is black and white.

We must accept that a funding issue arises for local authorities. If they choose to spend money on legal cases, they put their money at risk. We must work on that. We will try to use a carrot to stimulate activity, which is the objective we all want to achieve. There is nothing worse than driving through a town or village that should be thriving and seeing dereliction. Vacant buildings need to be used to provide accommodation.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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The time for questions has concluded. I apologise to Deputies and Ministers for cutting across them at times. We are on a tight schedule and people will lose out if we do not stick to it. I thank Members for their understanding and co-operation.