Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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46. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to address the high level of vacant and derelict buildings in town centres in County Offaly such as Banagher and Edenderry. [9032/17]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Pillar 5 of the Government's Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness - Rebuilding Ireland is specifically focused on Utilising Existing Housing Stock, with a key objective of ensuring that the existing vacant housing stock throughout the country and across all forms of tenure, in both the public and private sectors, is used to the optimum degree possible. In this regard, Action 5.1 of Rebuilding Ireland commits to the development of a National Vacant Housing Re-Use Strategy by the first quarter of 2017, informed by Census 2016 data, to inform the compilation of a register of vacant units across the country,

- identify the number, location and reasons for longer-term vacancies (i.e. over 6 months) in high demand areas, and

- set out a range of actions to bring vacant units back into reuse.

To this end, the Housing Agency, which has lead responsibility for coordinating the development of the Strategy, has established a working group in September 2016 comprising of senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and from the Housing Agency itself to inform the Strategy. The Group is due to report by the end of the first quarter of 2017.

As indicated, it is intended to facilitate the development of a national database of vacant houses under the auspices of the National VacantHousing Re-use Strategy. The database will aim to include:

- the number of vacant homes in each local authority area,

- the addresses of the vacant homes,

- the length of vacancy in each case, and

- the reason(s) for vacancy.

Work is progressing on identifying possible sources of data and information to assist in the most efficient means of compiling such a database .

In this context and further to Action 5.11 of Rebuilding Ireland, a Working Group, which I chair and which also involves senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and other relevant actors, has been established to bring forward proposals for new urban regeneration measures as early as possible. It is intended that the new measures will complement the existing regeneration activities under my Department's Social Housing Capital Programme, as well as other social regeneration initiatives already underway.I expect the Working Group to be in a position to report in Q2 2017.

Insofar as social housing initiatives are concerned, two new initiatives have been introduced to provide funding to bring vacant residential units back into use for social housing purposes. The Buy and Renew initiative offers opportunities for local authorities and, indeed, AHBs to purchase and renew premises in need of remediation, and make them available for social housing. The focus is on older stock, in particular, as part of the response that the authorities make in tackling dereliction and improving streetscapes in urban areas and towns. In that regard, an initial €25 million is available for Buy and Renew initiatives in 2017 and I propose to increase this to as much as €50 million in 2018 depending on demand, which should result in at least 400 - 500 renewed houses. Following the success of the initial pilot in Waterford and Carlow local authorities, the Repair and Leasing Schemeis being rolled out on a national basis from today. An additional €26m is being provided to fund the scheme in 2017, which brings the total amount of investment available this year to €32m. This additional investment in 2017 means that delivery under the scheme can be accelerated and up to 800 vacant properties across the country can be brought back into use as new homes for families on local authority waiting lists this year.