John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister in particular for the measures introduced as part of the Finance Bill on the living city initiative. It is one of the areas that I would have engaged with him on. The fact that it has been extended from the end of this calendar year to the end of 2027 is hugely welcome. I looked at some of the statistics earlier this year for Waterford and 76 properties had availed of the living city initiative – 24 owner-occupiers and 52 rental properties. We can of course, as Senator Buttimer said, go further than that.

The change the Minister introduced to shorten the relief period from ten years to seven years is also welcome. The commitment to live in the property is one of the provisions. The seven-year period is certainly a more attractive prospect in terms of recouping the tax relief. Tackling vacancy and dereliction is one of the most important issues. I have done much work on this in my own area in Waterford. I see the living city initiative as one of a suite of measures that we now have in place as a Government. We have the repair and lease scheme, the buy and renew scheme, the Croí Cónaithe scheme and the living city. Many of them interchange with each other, particularly the repair and lease and the living city initiative, to make it more attractive to bring those vacant and derelict properties back into use.

The maps for the special regeneration area that were designated back in 2015 as part of the process need to be updated now, six or seven years after the introduction of the scheme. There were a number of anomalies in those areas; for example, one side of the street was not included in one area. I am not saying they should be massively expanded, although I know many people would love to see it expanded to whole swathes of areas, but there is a tidying up exercise to be done. I would ask whether that piece of work could be undertaken by the Department in consultation with the local authorities.