Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, who is a frequent visitor to the House and usually has reasonably good news. I hope he will have good news on this occasion too.

The Minister of State will be aware that Rural Resettlement Ireland, a housing NGO that was begun by Mr. Jim Connolly in Kilbaha in west Clare, has been responsible for relocating hundreds of families from Dublin to towns and villages all over the country. The children of those families went to village schools and their children are now going to village schools. Many schools were able to keep extra teachers, certainly in the 1980s and early 1990s, because of the wonderful families from inner city Dublin who had difficulty in finding housing in Dublin and were welcomed with open arms in rural communities. There are dozens of such families in west Clare who have successfully relocated from Dublin.

I have been contacted by people in counties Leitrim and Mayo to ask why the scheme is not being promoted more, channelled or energised by the Government. My understanding is Rural Resettlement Ireland no longer receives State funding. Will the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government recommit to funding this concept? I have no doubt that many of the families who find themselves in the desperate position of being homeless in Dublin and who are living in bed and breakfast accommodation or hotel rooms would welcome the opportunity to relocate to a town or village that could do with the extra numbers because of depopulation. It is not the answer for everyone. Many people who find themselves in this situation want to stay in Dublin to be near their families and loved ones, but Government policy should support and facilitate those who wish to relocate to start a new life on another part of our great island. What are the views of the Minister of State on this? Has he committed funding for 2017 and 2018 to this organisation or other organisations which do similar work? Rural Resettlement Ireland has demonstrated it has worked well in the past and there is absolutely no reason such a scheme cannot work in future. This is my position on the matter. We need to think outside the box. We need to view the housing crisis as requiring an all-Ireland strategy. Where there are difficulties and challenges there are opportunities for other communities, villages, towns, GAA clubs and schools. It is not a Dublin, Cork or Limerick problem. It is an all-Ireland problem and there is an all-Ireland solution. I look forward to hearing the response of the Minister of State.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this item and I am glad of the opportunity to clarify the Department’s position on this matter and to outline our plans to support the regeneration of rural towns and villages in the context of Rebuilding Ireland, the action plan for housing and homelessness.

My colleague, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Heather Humphreys, has overall responsibility for regional and rural affairs and will advance a broadly-based rural development strategy in the context of commitments under the programme for a partnership Government. While my Department does not operate a specific rural resettlement programme, the recently published Rebuilding Ireland includes a range of measures supportive of the regeneration and renewal of towns and villages throughout rural Ireland, consequently ensuring a vibrant population in these places. As the Senator stated, there can be positive outcomes, and more than 800 families have been relocated with great success over the years, mainly from Dublin, to many of the counties he mentioned including Clare, Mayo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo and Galway. I know some of the families who later relocated to my county of Meath. They were delighted to have had the opportunity to relocate from Dublin to Roscommon. It is important that we have an opportunity for this to happen. It makes total sense to facilitate people in unsatisfactory or temporary accommodation in Dublin who would like to resettle. I am very interested in trying to achieve this. We are interested in promoting a scheme such as this.

It is our aim that steps are taken to secure the reuse of vacant and underutilised properties for residential purposes, particularly in the many towns and villages in rural Ireland that contain a significant number of empty houses. Action 5.1 of the action plan relates to the development of a national vacant housing reuse strategy. The strategy will examine the potential for bringing existing but vacant housing back into beneficial use. I intend to examine mechanisms to match such accommodation potential to prospective applicants for social housing, through measures such as the repair and leasing initiative, which will see upfront financial assistance being made available to upgrade empty but substandard accommodation in return for leasing back the property for social housing purposes. We also intend to examine the potential to widen the geographical range of social housing location options available to persons seeking such accommodation. This ties in with what the Senator said. Perhaps people on a waiting list in Dublin would be happy to relocate to a vacant property in Roscommon, Leitrim or Clare. This would benefit the local community because it would create activity for shops, schools and transport. Everybody would gain, provided it is by choice. We will try to make this an option to make it happen.

Acquisition and leasing options are also available to local authorities to ensure that households needing accommodation may be provided with such accommodation. Rural Resettlement Ireland, RRI, mentioned by Senator Conway, has done a great job. Recently, Mr. Jim Connolly of RRI met departmental officials to speak about the history of the organisation and its recent work and to be part of policy-making on rural regeneration and housing. We had a successful meeting and more meetings are planned. We recognise his expertise in this area and what the organisation has achieved over the years. RRI was established in 1991 to encourage and assist families to relocate to depopulated rural areas. In 1993 it received approved housing body status under section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992 and over the years since then it has received capital funding of more than €5.81 million under the capital assistance scheme and the capital loan and subsidy scheme. This capital funding was used to accommodate 21 households in County Clare and households in other areas. In addition, RRI received a total of €1.26 million in grant aid, of which the most recent instalment of €10,000 was paid in 2012, towards administrative support for the provision of advice, research, training and other supports in its endeavours to assist families to relocate to depopulated rural areas. Recently I watched an episode of "Nationwide" which featured some of these families. It was clear they had a very successful outcome. This was because of the work put in and the support and research provided. It is a big move for anyone to leave a city with which they are familiar, such as Dublin or Cork, and move to a rural area. Those of us familiar with rural Ireland understand how great it can be, but it can be a big change. It is important work is done with the families.

The Department’s allocation for grant aid funding was significantly reduced in 2012, and grant in aid is now prioritised for those applicant organisations which contribute most significantly to meeting national housing objectives. RRI was advised on receipt of its grant of €10,000 in 2012 that, given resource constraints, it was unlikely the Department would be in a position to provide further funding to it under that scheme. However, to guarantee that the rental properties supported by RRI are sustainably managed and maintained, fees for the management and maintenance of capital loan and subsidy scheme supported properties continue to be available to it, subject to compliance with the relevant terms and conditions. These fees, together with loan and interest charges, amounted to more than €696,000 over the past five years.

I assure the House the Government is committed to ensuring that rural towns and villages are not forgotten in our ongoing implementation of Rebuilding Ireland. The development of a rural resettlement programme will be considered further, in conjunction with the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, in the context of taking forward these measures, the details of which are set out in the action plan. We are committed to this. It is something that makes total sense. If 100, 200 or 1,000 people who today are in emergency accommodation and on a waiting list would like to move to a rural area we should facilitate it, particularly when there are vacant properties in the high streets of towns and villages which need to be used. It would breathe some life back into these rural areas and give them a chance to maintain the services they have.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for endorsing the ethos of the case I have made. I am delighted a positive meeting was held between departmental officials and Jim Connolly of Rural Resettlement Ireland, who is based in Kilbaha in west Clare. I hope the meetings in the new year will be even more positive, because Rural Resettlement Ireland has a proven track record going back to the early 1990s. It certainly has expertise, which the Minister of State has recognised. It can play a significant part in the housing crisis which bedevils the country at present. I will bring up with the Leader on the Order of Business that in February or March we will have statements in the House on rural resettlement, at which stage the Minister of State might have developed a more advanced policy platform, with targets for rural resettlement. Rural Resettlement Ireland has a role to play not only in developing this new policy but also in implementing it. I thank the Minister of State for one of the more comprehensive responses to a Commencement matter debate the House has had in some time.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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This is what we are trying to do. It is about having rural regeneration. The Government is very focused on this and taking the lead will be the Ministers, Deputies Heather Humphreys and Simon Coveney, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring and myself. There is a chance that in an effort to solve some of the housing situation with the housing budget we can fund rural regeneration. It makes sense that if people want to relocate that we would facilitate it at the very least.

Jim Connolly understands the necessity of rural regeneration, which includes housing. I chair an urban renewal working group, which includes small villages and towns, and we are examining a range of plans to breathe some life back into rural areas which have suffered decline not only for the past seven or eight years but perhaps for 20 or 30 years. If we look at the Westport example, where over 20 years there was investment of more than €180 million in a logical and planned way, we can see the difference it has made in those 20 years. We need the same type of plans for other rural areas and villages throughout the country. This is what we are trying to do through the Department, the working group I chair, and the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, to drive the action plan. We are working with the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ring, and other Departments to address this and put in place long-term sustainable plans to rebuild rural areas. I am very familiar with many towns and villages throughout the country which, over 20 or 30 years, have suffered decline. We need to have a plan to bring them back, which means having an economic plan and a vision.The first question often concerns the economic future, the best way to create jobs and how to give people a reason to live in an area. That is key. We are very clear. The housing budget comprises €5.5 billion of taxpayers' money over the next three or four years. We can use that funding quite cleverly to solve many problems, including the housing problem, and help rural Ireland. That is what we will try to do.