Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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14. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the annual housing unit targets for the urban renewal fund announced in budget 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45249/17]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The recent budget announced an urban renewal fund whereby funds would be set aside to work with other State organisations, local communities and the private sector to address dilapidation, to provide rebuilding programmes and to help incentivise regeneration in towns and villages. Will the Minister of State indicate how much funding was put in to that fund and what targets are associated with it in the context of housing delivery next year?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The economic downturn had a significant negative impact on our urban centres. In recognition of this, A Programme for a Partnership Government set out an ambitious priority for urban renewal, with a view to breathing life back into our urban centres and helping to make them more attractive places in which to live and work. We recognise that some of these centres have declined over a long period of 20 or 30 years and not just over the last seven or eight years.

Rebuilding Ireland - An Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, published in July 2016, reinforces the Government’s commitment to the area of urban regeneration, and proposes a further range of measures.

In this context, an urban renewal working group, which I chaired and which comprised senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and other relevant bodies, was established with a view to bringing forward proposals for new urban regeneration measures. It was intended that the new measures would complement the existing regeneration programme under the Department’s social housing capital programme, as well as other relevant social regeneration initiatives.

As announced in budget 2018, a programme of €50 million in funding, supplemented by an additional minimum 20% contribution from local authorities, is being introduced to support projects and initiatives to regenerate and revitalise depopulated urban areas and facilitate more compact urban growth. While such projects may encompass a residential element, they will have a broader reach, addressing wider issues of dereliction and improvements to the public realm. An initial €10 million is being made available in 2018 to get the programme underway.

A key aim will be to maximise linkages with other programmes designed to bring vacant properties back into use, such as the repair and leasing and buy and renew schemes.

The terms of the new urban regeneration scheme will be finalised later this year, in consultation with local authorities and other relevant stakeholders, to maximise the potential outcomes from the available funding. We hope this funding will put local authorities in a position to drive urban renewal and regeneration in key areas. It will probably involve picking key projects and applying funding over a number of years to make them happen. It is not set down in stone yet. We will engage further with stakeholders and local authorities before we publish it. The €50 million is an initial contribution, and more funding will be required over the years ahead as we can make it available. Part of the work is bringing together all of the different funding mechanisms to ensure we get an impact from them in various towns, villages and large urban centres as required.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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That means the funds have been allocated but there is no scheme to match them. The Government is continuing to deliberate on devising a scheme which might meet what it wants to do but one is not yet in place. No target is known as to how many houses will be delivered. The Minister of State mentioned the repair and leasing scheme, to which another €32 million is being allocated on the basis that it will achieve 800 new units in the coming year. It only got seven this year, notwithstanding the provision of many millions also. What amendments have been made to the scheme to ensure it works now in order that this time next year we can say 800 units emanated from it? Would the Government not be better advised to allow the funding to be matched with the Vacant Housing Refurbishment Bill we proposed and which the House agreed some weeks ago?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The funding allocated to urban regeneration projects follows the commitment in the programme for Government. My working group has had numerous meetings over the past year and before on the changes we need to make to get this money spent. The scheme is not finalised because the money was only allocated in the budget. We had not secured it until the weeks before the Budget Statement. It is something we have been seeking for a while and it has now been secured. In conjunction with local authorities, we will now make decisions on how it will be rolled out. It is about trying to achieve an impact in key areas. We envisage local authorities picking the key areas and bringing them forward in order that resources can be focused across numerous Departments to achieve real urban regeneration. To clarify, the funding is not specifically for housing. I think the Deputy will agree with that. However, it will tap into other housing schemes and in some cases bring back housing units. The Deputy had a Bill here himself on other buildings where he wants to see a change of use. Part of this will be to encourage that and bring buildings back into use in key areas in towns.

There is great potential in the repair and leasing scheme. We have changes to announce around that but the Deputy does not want us to keep announcing things. As such, we cannot really announce it here tonight. Changes will be brought forward to improve the scheme. I have repeatedly asked the Deputy, his colleagues and their party councillors to help drive this scheme which has great potential nationally. There have been more than 550 applications and people have expressed an interest in the scheme. While very few applications have been completed, there is a lot of interest and the scheme has great potential. I ask the Deputy and his colleagues to help us promote it.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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It is a total and abject failure. While there were 500 applicants, only seven were approved because the criteria associated with the scheme do not meet the market demand. There is no harm putting one's hands up and saying it did not work out and will be changed to encourage the market to get involved in the scheme. I have told the Minister of State that there is universal approval of the Vacant Housing Refurbishment Bill we put before the House. The funds in this failed entity should be transferred and geared towards legislation that can help in that way. The Minister of State should not tell me the scheme has potential when there is a budget to deliver 800 units but only seven were delivered. It is not going to happen.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy and many others complimented the scheme when we first rolled it out as one which could work. We recognise that we can make changes and we are going to do so. The Deputy keeps telling us to stop making announcements so we cannot tell him tonight about the changes to the scheme which will improve it. It has great potential which the Deputy and I can both see. He often refers to premises in his own county which need refurbishment, and this scheme is perfect for them. However, there has been a very slow buy-in. We will change the scheme to make it more attractive which it is hoped will encourage more people in. The potential is there to achieve renewal of accommodation as well as to supply social housing.

We agree with a great deal of what is in Fianna Fáil's Bill and we are trying to bring it forward to make changes to planning around change of use. The €50 million which has been set aside will help to drive some of the ideas discussed in the Bill, with which we all agree. As I have said, €50 million will not be enough and we will need a great deal more in the years ahead to drive urban regeneration in the many towns and villages that have suffered for 20 or 30 years and not just the last ten.