Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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235. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the extent to which his Department has sought or received communication from the various local authorities with a view to addressing the issue of stalled developments involving urban blight and run down streetscapes; if the funding already made available to address such issues requires further action, in the form of identification of specific measures to address individual cases with a view to eliminating blights such as that affecting Naas, County Kildare and other towns and villages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38821/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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My Department has not sought information from local authorities regarding stalled developments, urban blight etc. as it is a matter for those local authorities to monitor local situations and proactively engage in progressing development in their functional areas. My Department, together with other Government Departments have brought forward a number of measures and initiatives to incentivise urban development and renewal to assist in economic recovery, and these have been set out for the Deputy in replies to previous questions, including Question No. 37 of 23 April 2015. Of most recent note is the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015, which was commenced in September of this year, and provides for the introduction of a vacant site levy to encourage the development of vacant, underutilised sites in designated urban areas with a view to breathing life back into such areas, thereby addressing urban decay and bringing vacant sites forward for residential or regeneration use.

Supplementary to the vacant site levy, the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015 amends Section 10(2) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, to provide that the current objective incorporated in local authority development plans for the “development and renewal of areas in need of regeneration” is broadened to provide that such objective should in future be for the explicit purposes of preventing:

- adverse effects on existing amenities in such areas;

- urban blight and decay;

- anti-social behaviour; or

- a shortage of habitable houses or land suitable for residential use or a mixture of residential or other uses.

This is intended to stimulate local authorities to adopt a more holistic approach in relation to urban decay and regeneration in the adoption of local development plans.

The management of stalled development in Naas is a matter for Kildare County Council in the first instance.  To this end, I am aware that Kildare County Council has recently joined in an urban partnership on the European CityCentreDoctorProject, involving an engagement with other European urban centres through URBACT (a European exchange and learning programme which promotes sustainable urban development). The broad aim of the project is to explore urban innovation from a creative evidence-based approach. The project will allow local role players to benchmark Naas and investigate and prototype interventions and initiatives used in other towns throughout Europe.

This project is a key learning and participatory planning platform for Naas, and has the potential to play an important role in supporting the town’s renewal.