Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move recommendation No. 11:

In page 67, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following:

“Report on Living Cities Initiative

26.The Minister shall within 6 months of the passing of this Act prepare and lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report on the expansion of the Living Cities Initiative to towns to encourage the refurbishment or conversion of suitable properties for city or town-centre living.”.

I compliment the Minister and his team on all their work to date on the expansion of the living city initiative and the most recent changes proposed in the Bill. As the Minister is aware, I live in the centre of Limerick city and unfortunately, many buildings are not in use, especially in the Georgian quarter. The scheme has helped to bring a number of those properties back into use. Thinking back to its beginning, people found it very restrictive and while we have come a long way, I believe we will have to go further. I would love to see a report in six or 12 months on how many properties in town centres and cities have availed of the scheme. When I walk down our main streets, we have many buildings where nobody is living over the premises. Many city centre streets have no one living there and we need to bring people back living in the city centres. I am thinking of our Georgian buildings, on which this is very much focused, and how so many were left to go into dereliction. It is great to see them coming back into use now but there are still many buildings where developers find it a bit too restrictive, while some have found the cost of renovating prohibitive. I welcome what has happened to date but we will have to look further and I would love to revisit this in six months or that the Minister could bring back a report down the line to see how successful it had been and to look at stronger options to expand it.