Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 16: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if any consideration has been given to urban rejuvenation or urban renewal including commercial activity by way of pilot scheme or other methodologies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30411/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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A wide range of property-based tax relief schemes was introduced up to the mid-2000s, including town renewal and living over the shop schemes. While many important developments were encouraged by these schemes, independent reviews concluded that the tax costs of the initiatives were high relative to the outputs achieved and the Department of Finance is in the process of winding down existing schemes in light of the current economic climate and the ongoing legacy costs of such schemes to the Exchequer as investors use their reliefs and capital allowances.

Similarly, the Urban and Village Renewal Programme 2000-2006, through which grant assistance was provided by my Department to local authorities for a range of interventions to upgrade the fabric of the built environment in cities, towns and villages, ended in early 2008. That scheme involved total EU and Exchequer co-financed expenditure of over €158m. The 2007-2013 Urban and Village Regeneration Programme, administered by my Department, was deferred due to budgetary constraints.

Nonetheless, my Department remains committed to working with local government and other community development and enterprise stakeholders to ensure that a recovering economy will result in an even distribution of opportunity. In this regard there is a particular need to target in an integrated way urban areas which face particular problems resulting from both the economic downturn and investments in the past which did not facilitate the development of sustainable communities capable of benefiting from the period of high prosperity or coping with the subsequent downturn. Major regeneration programmes in Ballymun and Limerick together with a range of other remedial works schemes across the country are being prioritised to assist in addressing this deficit.