I move amendment No. 48:
In page 20, before section 21, to insert the following new section:
"21.—Section 43 of the Finance Act, 1986, shall apply and have effect as if—
‘designated area' were substituted for ‘Custom House Docks Area' in subsection (1).".
The purpose of this is to seek to apply the provisions that relate to the provision of residential accommodation in the Custom House Docks area as defined in the Finance Act, 1986, section 43, to what is elsewhere in that Act defined as designated areas of the inner cities. The five cities to which it applies are Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. In each of these cities an area has been designated for these purposes and the local authorities and others are endeavouring to promote this commercial and residential development in each of the areas. In so far as many of those areas are concerned and particularly in so far as the area in Limerick is concerned, the proposals which were in existence for the provision of private residential accommodation by way of apartments either for sale or for rent have largely been put at nought by virtue of the decision of the Government at the time of the budget in relation to housing grants, and it is understood that none of the proposed 200 plus apartments and inner city houses that were to be provided at no cost to the Exchequer, other than grants, in the designated area in Limerick will now be proceeded with. While I do not know the exact position in relation to the other cities, I would imagine that the same problem arises in respect of them it may well be that either a reduced number of such proposals is going ahead or that none at all are going ahead.
On the other hand, under the section in question, there is considerable encouragement for development of this kind at the Custom House Docks area in Dublin. The purpose of designating the Custom House Docks area was the same basically as that in relation to other designated areas in the inner cities, to try to promote urban renewal, to try to clean up the rather run down aspect of all the inner cities, particularly Dublin and Limerick which, unfortunately, are the worst in this respect, and to try to promote development there that would not otherwise take place and by promoting that development to encourage other development to take place in the vicinity or the locality.
The Custom House Docks area as defined in the 1986 Finance Act as far as I can ascertain extends only to an area of 27 acres and in the context of inner city Dublin or the inner city of any city, that is a very small area indeed. Since most of this Custom House Docks area is intended for commercial development in any event, there cannot be a great deal of space left for residential development. Therefore, it is important that this area be extended to include the whole of what is defined in the 1986 Act as the designated area not alone in relation to Dublin but in relation to the four other cities also. This will have the effect of enabling development to take place in the five inner city areas which would not otherwise take place.
The cost to the State in relation to a matter such as this must be very small indeed because the encouragement is mainly by way of foregoing things that the State would otherwise be entitled to, but the State is entitled to nothing out of these areas for the moment because they are lying derelict and producing no revenue and no commercial or economic activity. Since the cost in net terms would be negligible and since the investment would be by definition by way of private finance, the State is not called on to make any capital allocation.
Such investment would be a valuable way of creating development in these designated inner city areas, particularly as there is now danger, due to the abolition of the grants, that no residential development would take place in any of them.
The one in which, to my knowledge, the greatest degree of such development was proposed, relatively speaking at any rate, was Limerick. It is very disappointing to see that that whole proposal, which up to a few months ago would have amounted to more than 200 dwellings in a relatively small area designated in the inner city of Limerick, is not now going to go ahead. This is a way of overcoming that problem. It applies these rights to the five inner cities, including Dublin and not just to one small designated area within the overall designated area of Dublin. Because of the manner in which it is proposed to be dealt with, I hope that the Minister will find it acceptable and that this proposed new section will be accepted and enacted.