Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the features unique to Limerick is that so much of the city is Georgian. If people come from abroad, they come to see Georgian Limerick. For this reason, we must ensure the buildings are renovated. In many cases, it is proving prohibitive for people to live in the buildings. I want to see if there are other ways to get families back into the city. It is controversial. Are all of the costs required fully necessary for conservation? This is something people may not agree with. A different model operates in the UK. I ask the Minister of State and his officials to initiate a review of the living city initiative to see how it is working and what could be done to ensure greater take-up. There may be areas we are missing, such as shortening the tax period or enhancing grants from the Heritage Council. It is an area that should be hugely beneficial but the take-up is not as strong as I would like it to be. The initiative could have exponential benefits for Limerick city. There are also Georgian quarters in Dublin and Waterford.

The Government could not have introduced any other budget. It is a responsible budget, which was framed in the shadow of Brexit. Going back to what Senator Horkan said, what is happening in the UK is outside our control. We have to be prepared for all eventualities. Would I like Brexit not to proceed? Absolutely. If it is to proceed, I would like it to take a form that has the least impact on us. It is important that when a Government must do a budget it does what is necessary at that point in time. The budget could not include all of the measures we would like for various groups but I hope that when Brexit is finalised we can get back to looking at areas we were unable to deal with in the budget.