Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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149. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the amount of money granted to rural resettlement each year since 2012, in relation to the Government's commitment to rural resettlement; the current uptake of the scheme; if he will reinstate funding to Rural Resettlement Ireland whose funding was cut in 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31151/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, my colleague, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, has overall responsibility for regional and rural affairs and will be advancing a broadly-based rural development strategy, in the context of commitments under the Programme for a Partnership Government. While there is no specific rural resettlement programme operated by my Department, the recently published Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness includes a range of measures supportive of the regeneration and renewal of towns and villages across rural Ireland and, consequently, ensuring a vibrant population in those places. It is my aim that all steps are taken to secure the re-use of vacant and under-utilised 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 Re-Use Strategy and I intend to examine the potential to widen the geographical range of social housing location options available to persons seeking such accommodation.

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 up-front financial assistance being made available to upgrade empty, but sub-standard, accommodation in return for leasing the property back for social housing purposes. Acquisition and leasing options are also available to local authorities to ensure that households needing accommodation may be provided with that accommodation.

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, which is available on the website, www.rebuildingireland.ie.