Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 January 2022
73. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the way his Department can help first-time buyers bring derelict houses back into use as homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3249/22]
View answerI want to ask about the issue of derelict housing. It is an issue I have raised time and again over the years. There is an opportunity to bring thousands of units throughout the country in every community back into use as homes for people and to do so in a relatively short period of time. What action is being taken? It is something that is very urgent.
Deputy Griffin has raised this on numerous occasions, particularly with regard to County Kerry.
Housing for All published in September 2021 provides a new housing plan for Ireland to 2030 with the overall objective that every citizen in the State should have access to good quality homes through a steady supply of housing in the right locations with economic, social and environmental sustainability built into the system. This strategy provides for a broad suite of measures, including for first-time buyers. In particular, in the context of addressing vacancy and efficient use of existing stock, the strategy provides the Croí Cónaithe towns fund which 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, thus enabling people to live in the small towns and villages in a sustainable way. This pertains, in particular, to counties such as Kerry.
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 that purpose.
Housing for All also recognises the potential to utilise relevant heritage building stock for residential purposes. It is also anticipated that funding will be made available under the new round of the European Regional Development Fund to tackle vacancy and dereliction in towns. This is an issue that pertains, in particular, to rural Ireland where there are significant challenges of depopulation in certain parts of the country.
Again, I commend Kerry County Council on being one of only three local authorities to have availed of the full-time role of a vacancy officer. Having that role within the local authority will be a significant benefit in trying to unlock the potential the Government is trying to develop by way of our policy on vacancy and delivering for first-time buyers.
I thank the Minister of State for his reply. This is an area in which I have a great interest. It is very frustrating to see in my community and while travelling in County Kerry and throughout the country so many vacant units in the middle of a housing crisis. It is critical that we provide incentives to get these derelict properties on to the market, as is the stick which is coming in the vacant property tax. It is vital that we are imaginative in the types of incentives we can provide to people who are currently holding these types of properties in order to make them available on the market with first-time buyers having an advantage. In that respect, there should be a holiday or brief window during which owners selling to a first-time buyer would have a capital gains tax holiday. We must also provide grant aid for doing up these properties as it is expensive to do so, both for materials and labour.
Extending the help-to-buy scheme to these properties is also critically important. They will become new units because they are currently not occupied. It is important, therefore, that the scheme is extended to such properties throughout the countryside, and not just in towns and villages.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta arís. Deputy Griffin is making an important point and his suggestion is worthy of consideration. As I said, a suite of measures is already in place and we are pursuing them. The Croí Cónaithe initiative will deliver. It is an important measure to support local authorities in providing serviced sites for housing, to attract people to build their own homes and for the refurbishment of vacant properties. The town centres first policy, which the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, has been leading, will be an enabling force, particularly for smaller towns, in dealing with the barriers people face in doing up vacant properties, particularly heritage and older properties in towns, such as 19th century and early 20th century properties that could be put back to use for first-time buyers. Once launched, this policy should be of great assistance. Local authorities also need to be proactive in delivering.
As I have been getting different figures, I would be grateful if the Minister of State could provide me with definitive figures on how many derelict properties there are in my County Kerry. I am sure he does not have them with him now.
I also emphasise that in our messaging we should not refer only to towns and villages but also to the thousands of derelict cottages and old farmhouses throughout the countryside. That is critically important. People who grew up in the countryside sometimes cannot get planning permission, yet these derelict houses are available and could be transformed. We have to include those buildings, embrace them and bring them back into use to keep our countryside communities alive, including the one I am from.
The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, will visit my constituency next week. It is very important that he see the former St. Finan’s Hospital in Killarney, which has the potential to deliver a large number of housing units. The senior Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, was there during the summer. This has been done in Waterford and it can be done in Killarney.
I support Deputy Griffin's comments on incentives. In one particular small town in my constituency, and there are many others like it, there are at least ten vacant properties on the main street. One man owns them all and when I asked him about these properties he replied that he was under no pressure to do anything with them.
Yes.
They need a small amount of work but he said he was under no pressure whatsoever. He also said that if he did them up and rented them out, the tax would make them unviable. What kind of incentives and supports are available? The man in question stated the properties could not be taken off him because he owned them and they were his property. What incentives can we give this man, and others like him, to develop and open up these properties so that people can live in them?
In some villages, one, two or three property owners may own a number of derelict sites and are just sitting on them. That is replicated across the country. Compulsory purchase order, CPO, powers in cases where a building is derelict would allow local authorities to purchase these properties.
On the specific point raised by Deputy Griffin about the new scheme the Minister flagged over the weekend to grant-aid people who are buying derelict homes, will that apply to one-off derelict homes in rural areas as well as derelict buildings on main streets?
There are approximately 70,000 vacant homes which could be the target of public policy. Remarkably, 12.5% of those homes in Waterford have been put back into use. In most counties, the figure is around 1%. Good practice in local authorities makes a difference. Can the Minister give momentum to that? Will he extend, for example, the repair and leasing scheme to cost-rental homes, in other words, affordable homes, as well as social homes? That is a real target of public policy now and we should allow those schemes to have that flexibility.
The Deputies asked quite a number of questions. On the last point made by Deputy Bruton, between 2017 and 2021, the repair and leasing scheme brought 273 units into use.
On the point made by Deputy Phelan and other Deputies on one-off houses, the Department launched a vernacular strategy a number of weeks ago. These houses are important from a rural perspective and the pattern of rural Ireland. Rather than knocking these properties we need to put them back into productive use, with supports for doing so. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, is looking at tax incentives for individual owners of properties. We have not fully developed that yet but there are important points to consider on this issue.
In respect of grants from our own Department, the historic towns initiative, the historic structures fund and the built heritage investment scheme are good schemes which address some of the issues the Deputies raised. They are available for small repairs to properties such as roof structures, windows, etc., that can get these properties back into productive use and on to the market for sale. A range of measures are in place. All the Deputies have raised important points that we will also take on board from this debate.
