Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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129. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way that he plans to address ongoing issues in relation to the dereliction and regeneration of derelict buildings under the Town Centre First policy particularly in relation to incentivising or penalising persons who own vacant or derelict properties but are not utilising them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8610/22]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Town Centre First policy, jointly developed by my Department and the Department of Rural and Community Development, sets out 33 actions which will provide a co-ordinated framework across established national policy objectives (in particular the National Planning Framework, Housing for All and Our Rural Future) to address the decline in the health of our towns and sets out actions to regenerate and revitalise them.

Addressing vacancy and maximising the use of existing housing stock is a primary objective of this Government and a number of measures are provided for in the Town Centre First policy and Housing for All to address vacancy and dereliction. The Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund will be delivered by local authorities for the provision of serviced sites for housing, to attract people to build their own homes and to support the refurbishment of vacant properties, enabling people to live in small towns and villages, in a sustainable way. This scheme is currently being designed with a call for proposals intended to issue to Local Authorities later this Quarter.

In addition, Housing for All provides for the launching of a programme of Compulsory Purchase Orders to bring vacant units to the market for sale, as well as activating unused State owned properties for this purpose. A central advisory service is being established in the Housing Agency that will assist the Local Authorities in implementing this programme which seeks to bring 2,500 properties into residential use by 2026. The programme will also be supported by a bridging finance facility from the Housing Finance Agency for property acquisitions.