James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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115. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way the new Croí Cónaithe fund will support villages and towns across rural Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46471/21]

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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169. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the Croí Cónaithe fund to increase owner-occupier apartment development in city centres will apply to urban villages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46475/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 115, 116 and 169 together.

Our recently launched Housing for All plan sets out four pathways to a sustainable housing system. A key objective is that everyone in the State should have access to a home to purchase or rent at an affordable price, built to a high standard and in the right place, offering a high quality of life.

Aligned with our overall National Planning Framework (NPF) objective for compact growth, vibrant, liveable cities and towns must offer options for both owner occupiers and renters, at all income levels. The new Croí Cónaithe fund as outlined in Housing for All, is intended to ensure that aligned with the objectives of the NPF, additional choices are made available to home buyers in our urban cores, and town centres. It will do this by working to extend home ownership options, where the choice is currently limited:

- In urban areas, for apartment living in developments over a certain height/density threshold;

- In towns, where options for building new private dwellings have been constrained by the lack of serviced sites.

In higher density locations, the number of apartments being built for sale poses a challenge. We are also aware of a high level of unactivated permissions, particularly for apartments, in our urban areas. A Croí Cónaithe (Cities) fund is being established, which through a competitive bid process, will seek to deliver developments at a viable cost for sale to owner occupiers, targeted principally at activating the planning permissions already in place for such homes over the coming five years. It will be managed by the Housing Agency on behalf of my Department.

Different challenges arise for facilitating owner-occupation in towns, where viable sites available for building of new homes are in short supply. There is significant potential for local authorities to support homeownership in these areas by making available serviced sites at a reduced cost or providing support towards the refurbishment of vacant properties where the level of vacancy or dereliction is high. A pathfinder programme will be initiated as part of a Croí Cónaithe (Towns) fund, to facilitate the making available of some 2,000 sites for homes by 2025.

My Department is working with the Housing Agency to develop an operational basis for this new Croí Cónaithe fund, which will work alongside other related funds such as the Affordable Housing Fund and complement measures forthcoming in the Towns Centre First (TCF) policy framework, details of which are expected to be finalised over Q4 2021.