Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I love my home town of Drogheda. Our small city is really in my DNA and defines me. We have had and still have our problems. Every place does. We always overcome them. We often do so in spite of and not because of Government support. Increasingly, we have had to rely on ourselves to address the problems this Government patently ignores. To give an example, to tackle the social and economic problems that formed the backdrop to a vicious criminal feud, it was me as an Opposition Senator and my colleague, Councillor Pio Smith, who went to the then Department of Justice and Equality to make the case for the Drogheda implementation board model to be adopted. The local business community felt ignored by both central and local government. I helped to set up the Love Drogheda BID scheme, which is helping to breathe new life into our town. It is what responsible public representatives do.

Our town, as the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, will know, is the largest in Ireland. It straddles two local authority areas. We are a city in all but name, yet last week, a Fianna Fáil Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, again rejected out of hand my long-standing call for city status for Drogheda. A Labour Party Bill approved by the Dáil seven years ago, which would see councils like Drogheda borough council restored, continues to be blocked. When Deputy Simon Coveney relegated Drogheda to the third division status of tiny towns like Listowel under the discredited national planning framework, we had to mount a campaign to upgrade our status to development centre, but few real economic and foreign direct investment job benefits have actually accrued from that. That was tokenism at its worst, to save face for Fine Gael. Fine Gael also bottled, in the guise of the then Minister, Deputy Coveney, the boundary review I commissioned in 2015. Logic said it should have seen the urban area of Drogheda in County Meath included in Drogheda proper.

In recent weeks, as the Minister of State and every Member of this House will know, the D Hotel, Drogheda's only large-scale downtown hotel, has been taken out of commission for tourism use, unravelling the work of public representatives like my colleague, Councillor Michelle Hall, Louth County Council, and indeed Fáilte Ireland, which worked hard to promote Drogheda as what is known as a destination town.

These are not nakedly political jibes or charges I make here in the House this evening: these are the objective facts. It is no wonder that the term "official neglect" is one the people of my proud small city are now using when they speak of this Government. The people of Drogheda feel like they are being trolled or gaslighted by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. I do not say that lightly.

I have given the Minister of State the evidence, and here is more. The most visible form of neglect is official vandalism. We have more than 40 derelict properties lying idle, crumbling in parts of our historic town centre. Every year on Committee Stage of the Finance Bill I propose that the Bill would be amended to include Drogheda in the living city renovation initiative. Every year, my amendment is rejected, first by a Fine Gael Minister and now by a Fianna Fáil Minister. Last week, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, again refused to entertain my proposal in a reply to a parliamentary question.

This targeted tax break has helped countless owner-occupiers and developers across the country to bring many vacant and derelict properties back into use. I will give an example. In Kilkenny, 19 properties have been brought back into use. That is half the number of derelict properties contained in Drogheda's town centre. I wish good luck and more power to Kilkenny, but as the Minister of State knows, Drogheda is twice the size of Kilkenny and it is just as historic and architecturally important. I appeal to the Minister of State, and to his senior colleague, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, to look again at Drogheda and to help us in the same way as the likes of Limerick, Waterford and Kilkenny have been helped and allow us have access to the living city scheme to help tackle our dereliction and vacancy crisis.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Nash for raising this issue with me this evening. I love Drogheda too. My mother went to school there. She was in the Drogheda Grammar School for many a year, although it was many years ago. It is a small city that I visit regularly. I appreciate Deputy Nash's passion, which is shared by my colleague, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, whom I know Deputy Nash has worked very well with for many years. He will soon be leaving this House and I know he will be missed by many.

As Deputy Nash is aware, the living city initiative is a modest and targeted tax measure, which is aimed at areas with significant architectural heritage in urgent need of regeneration. It provides income or corporation tax relief for qualifying expenditure incurred in the refurbishment and conversion of qualifying residential and commercial buildings located within special regeneration areas, which the Deputy cited, are in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford.

Its aim is to encourage people back to the centre of Irish cities to live in historic buildings. The Finance Act 2022 provided that the living city initiative would be extended for a further five-year period to 31 December 2027. The owner-occupier element of the relief was also enhanced in the Finance Act 2022 for new entrants from 1 January 2023.

The special regeneration areas are designated by the Minister for Finance on independent advice. Maps of the special regeneration areas of each city are available to view online. Specific criteria were set down in respect of the areas that should be included within the remit of the living city initiative, which were required to be taken into account by the relevant city councils when putting forward the proposed special regeneration areas for each city.

In particular, the special regeneration areas should be inner-city areas that are largely comprised of dwellings built before 1915, where there is above average unemployment and which demonstrate clear evidence of neglect, dereliction and under-use. Areas that are generally regarded as affluent, have high occupancy rates and which do not require regeneration should not be included. The scheme is targeted at those areas that are most in need of attention.

However, and as the Deputy may be aware, the vacant property refurbishment grant is provided to support the refurbishment of vacant properties in towns and villages across the country. The grant was introduced in 2022 and benefits those who wish to turn a formerly vacant house or building into their principal private residence. A grant up to a maximum of €70,000 is available for the refurbishment of vacant properties for occupation as a principal private residence, and for properties that will be made available for rent.

The living city initiative was reviewed as part of the tax strategy group process in 2022. The review noted that the scheme is a very specific tax incentive, established in compliance with the Department of Finance's tax expenditure guidelines, with the aim of encouraging businesses and homeowners back to the centre of Irish cities.

The review also noted that property-related tax measures facilitated the property boom prior to the financial crisis but were ultimately deemed ineffective as the projects were spread nationwide instead of being targeted on the localities where the need was greatest. In contrast, the living city initiative is a modest, targeted, scheme which is aimed at refurbishment of the existing building stock in very specific areas that are in urgent need of regeneration.

A large-scale expansion of the living city initiative to towns nationwide would amount to a section 23-type relief. Such a move would fundamentally transform the scheme into one where the cost implications are so substantial it would need an ex ante cost benefit analysis. The proposal would have the potential to greatly increase the Exchequer cost.

While, like any other tax measure, it is kept under review and I will undertake to feed into the review all the comments Deputy Nash has made this evening, unfortunately, there are no plans at present to extend the scheme to further areas.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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That is essentially what the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, said to me last week. It seems to me that the only thing standing in the way of including Drogheda in the living city scheme is politics. We meet the criteria for the scheme, which the Minister of State set out. We manifest levels of vacancy and dereliction and higher than average levels of unemployment and deprivation. All of the buildings that need help in places like Narrow West Street, Laurence Street, and where the Minister of State's mother was educated on Duke Street, were built prior to 1915. We need a political decision to be made. We know that the total outlay on the scheme is very small. I have read the tax strategy group's papers and the recommendations it made on the future of the scheme. This is not about reinstituting the old urban regeneration scheme and the wastefulness it involved; this is a very targeted scheme in historic areas that require regeneration. It is not like the old wasteful scheme. Looking at the figures earlier today, it is inexpensive as well. For example, in 2018 only €500,000 was shelled out to support the scheme. The independent consultants, Indecon, said in a report a number of years ago that it is very effective in terms of conservation as well. Developers who own sites in the areas I have referenced, with whom we deal all of the time, say the introduction of this scheme could make the difference between them doing something with a derelict property, or not. This is the answer. This could be truly transformational for the centre of Drogheda.

Nobody has explained to me why Kilkenny was included in the scheme. It is a town which is actually not an administrative city from a legal point of view, but Drogheda has been excluded. It always looked like a stroke to me and that will remain the case until somebody explains otherwise. We have a very important public realm scheme, the Westgate Vision, which was pioneered by my colleague, Councillor Pio Smith, and the officials of Louth County Council. It is before An Bord Pleanála at the moment. When that is approved, hopefully in June, it will require significant millions in funding through the URDF from the Government to make it happen.

The Minister of State has a chance here to change the narrative with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in terms of Drogheda and work to introduce this scheme which can truly be transformational and address the dereliction and vacancy we have, unfortunately, experienced in Drogheda town centre.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I again thank Deputy Nash for his contribution here this evening. I repeat that the special regeneration areas are designated by the Minister for Finance on independent advice. We respond to the advice and we look at the maps of the regeneration areas, as they are sought and provided.

I said quite clearly to Deputy Nash that like any tax expenditure, the living city initiative is kept under review. As I am sure he will appreciate, decisions regarding tax incentives and reliefs, whether in respect of the introduction of new measures or the amendment or expansion of existing measures are normally made in the context of the budget and the finance Bill.

As members of the finance committee, Deputy Nash and I sat through three finance Bills, when he was his party spokesperson. This is the process we need to look to in regard to the living city initiative. I know he raised it with both me and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath. The points he made are very salient and I do not argue with them. I fundamentally believe that the small city of Drogheda does require that level of respect. An awful lot of work has gone into Drogheda and the wider area, in particular in regard to criminal gang feuds and the effort made by successive Ministers, including when Deputy Nash was in that position himself. I accept that more can be done. We all accept that more could be done for our home towns and areas. That is why we come in here every day to advocate for them. With regard to this particular initiative, while I take Deputy Nash's points on board, realistically at this point it is within the finance Bill that any review could be done. As it stands, there is no plan to change the scheme in terms of the existing places that are included.