Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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400. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government whether a town centre living grant will be introduced. [50474/25]

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s ‘Town Centre First’ (TCF) Policy Approach was launched by my Department and the then Department of Rural and Community Development in 2022, and since then, a range of supports and measures to encourage more people to live, do business and visit our town centres have been introduced.

To drive the delivery of TCF, a number of national structures were established, including a network of Town Regeneration Officers who are working in concert with wider local authority teams focused on town centre regeneration, supported by a National TCF Office.

Increasing housing supply in towns, including through the conversion of vacant or under-used premises to housing is a critical part of the Government’s approach to regeneration. The Vacant Homes Unit in my Department has published the ‘Vacant Homes Action Plan’ to draw together a number of vacancy related measures across relevant Government Departments, see the latest 2025 Progress Report here: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/publications/vacant-homes-action-plan-2023-2026/

A number of Government funding streams have now been aligned closely with TCF. These include the Project Ireland 2040 Urban and Rural Regeneration and Development Funds (URDF and RRDF), the Town and Village Renewal Scheme (TVRS), in addition to the following funding streams and grants that specifically focus on tackling vacancy and promoting town centre living:

• URDF Call 3 is specifically targeted at tackling long term vacancy and dereliction, providing a €150 million revolving fund for local authorities to acquire vacant or derelict properties, using their compulsory purchase powers where necessary. Acquired properties are then offered for private sale at market value to those who will commit to bringing the property back into residential use. To date, 1,297 properties have been approved by my Department for inclusion on URDF 3 programmes, across all 31 local authorities.
• The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant scheme provides funding up to €50,000 to refurbish vacant properties and up to €70,000 where the property is confirmed derelict. At the end of Q2 2025, over 13,700 applications had been received for the VPRG with over 9,9,70 approved and over 2,850 grants paid to date as refurbishment works have been completed, amounting to almost €155,255 million.
• Additional DHLGH schemes in response to vacancy/dereliction include the Repair and Leasing Scheme targeted at owners of vacant properties and the Buy and Renew Scheme providing capital funding to local authorities to deliver social housing.
• My Department also introduced a change to the Planning and Development Regulations in 2018, that provide an exemption from the need to obtain planning permission for the change of use of certain vacant commercial buildings to residential use, including ‘above the shop’ living. The most recent local authority returns from 2024 show that local authorities have received notifications of 1,457 exempted development proposals to date, with plans put forward to result in the provision of 3,429 new homes nationwide. These exemptions can be combined with other vacant property supports outlined above such as the ‘Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant’ (VPRG) and the ‘Repair and Leasing Scheme’.