Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 October 2018
619. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of vacant properties in Limerick city and county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39468/18]
View answerLimerick City and County Council is taking an area-based and collaborative approach to addressing vacancy and dereliction of private housing in towns and villages in the City and County. The primary focus of programmes initially is in areas of high housing demand, and with a secondary focus of town and village renewal, improving public realm and regeneration of the Historic core in Limerick City. Staff are carrying out surveys of their districts with reference to Census and GeoDirectory information, identifying residential properties which may be targeted under the Buy and Renew and Repair and Lease Schemes. These schemes have been advertised locally, and are being proactively promoted on the ground with staff linking with community groups, voluntary housing associations and encouraging citizen participation in identifying vacant properties. Information on vacant property is being collated and mapped, in order to generate a picture of real vacancy. Vacancy Officers provide advice and assistance and linkages to other colleagues in the Council utilising all mechanisms available to address vacancy and bring properties back into use.
Limerick City and County Council carried out a City Centre Health Check (in 5 City Centre Electoral Districts) during January 2018. This analysis indicates that the number of vacant commercial city centre properties was 943 (46% of the total commercial properties) and the number of vacant residential properties was 357 (representing 8% of the total residential properties in this area).
The Council is one of six local authorities that volunteered to participate in an ongoing vacancy pilot field survey, and has visually inspected areas within their administrative area which have been identified as being more likely to contain vacant dwellings based on the data sets available. Those dwellings identified by the Council as potentially vacant will be targeted with a view to identifying and engaging with the owners to advise them of the options available to them should they wish to bring their homes back into use.
All local authorities will continue to work on identifying recoverable residential homes as they have already been doing. This work may include carrying out desktop data drilling exercises (into CSO/GeoDirectory statistics), “boots on the ground” inspections and subsequent identification of / engagement with property owners, with the aim of reactivating the greatest number of recoverable dwellings into the liveable housing stock.
