Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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170. To ask the Minister for Finance whether he will accept recommendations made by Dublin City Council to extend the existing boundary for the Living City initiative, as constituents residing at a location one street outside the current boundary (details supplied) have attempted to apply and been rejected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [67707/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Living City Initiative (LCI) is a targeted measure which is aimed at very specific areas in urgent need of regeneration, it is provided for under sections 372AAA to 372AAD of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. It currently offers income or corporation tax relief for qualifying expenditure incurred in the refurbishment and conversion of qualifying residential and commercial buildings located within ‘Special Regeneration Areas' (SRAs) of the cities of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford.

The SRAs were designated following consultation with the relevant city councils and an independent review by a third party advisor. Specific criteria were set down in respect of the areas which should be included within the remit of the LCI which were required to be taken into account by the relevant city councils when putting forward the proposed SRAs for each city. The SRAs were designed to achieve the very specific objectives of the scheme and no more.

In the Budget 2026 address, it was announced that a number of enhancements to the LCI to strengthen the scheme would be included in Finance Bill 2025. The Bill was published on 16 October last and is currently progressing through the Houses of the Oireachtas. It was also announced that the LCI would be extended to the five regional centres identified in the National Planning Framework of Athlone, Drogheda, Dundalk, Letterkenny and Sligo. Work will commence shortly on the designation of SRAs in the five additional towns.