Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 April 2023
56. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will provide an update on the roll-out of the town centre first policy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19347/23]
View answer72. Deputy Ciarán Cannon asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development when local groups in Galway will be able to apply for funding under the town and village renewal scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19233/23]
View answer83. Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she will outline the work being undertaken by her Department to address vacancy and dereliction in rural towns and villages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19231/23]
View answer102. Deputy Brian Leddin asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if her Department has received applications from all local authorities in respect of the new building acquisition measure funding to tackle vacancy and dereliction in towns and villages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19333/23]
View answer114. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development when local groups in Cork will be able to apply for funding under the town and village renewal scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19401/23]
View answerWill the Minister make a statement on the roll-out of the town centre first policy?
I propose to take Questions Nos. 56, 72, 83, 102 and 114 together.
The town centre first policy is a major, cross-government policy that aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres. It supports the vision in Our Rural Future for a thriving rural Ireland, which is integral to our national economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being and development.
My Department co-chairs the national oversight and advisory group for the policy with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This group seeks to oversee the delivery of the policy and ensure there is clear stakeholder visibility in respect of implementation. The group met for the first time in December and is due to meet again this month. The establishment of the national implementation office is key to the success of the policy. The office supports town regeneration officers in driving implementation at a local level and co-ordinates stakeholder engagement. This structure has now been put in place within the Local Government Management Agency and my officials are in ongoing contact with the national office.
A key aim of both the town centre first and Our Rural Future policies is addressing vacancy and dereliction in rural towns and villages and ensuring the policies and schemes in place directly address and tackle these issues. This complements other national policies such as Housing for All and the national planning framework, which also aim to tackle vacancy in rural towns and villages as well as supporting local communities.
Central to the town centre first approach is the range of support funding in place, including my Department’s rural regeneration and development fund and the town and village renewal scheme. Last November, I announced funding of €115 million for regeneration projects in rural towns under my Department's rural regeneration and development fund for 2023. These projects include a focus on combating vacancy and dereliction by regenerating iconic town centre buildings such as old hotels, banks, schools and courthouses. Similarly, last December, I announced €27 million in funding to combat dereliction and breathe new life into rural towns and villages under the 2022 town and village renewal scheme.
In 2023, the schemes implemented by my Department will continue to support the town centre first approach and prioritise addressing vacancy and dereliction. For example, last month I launched the 2023 building acquisition measure, which will allow local authorities to purchase up to three buildings up to a total grant value of €500,000. This call for applications is open and local authorities have until 28 April to submit applications. The scheme priorities are reviewed at the end of each scheme year and the review process for the 2023 town and village renewal scheme is currently at an advanced stage. I intend to launch the 2023 scheme in June of this year and local community groups can then submit their proposals through their local authority for funding under the scheme.
My Department remains committed to the success of the town centre first policy to deliver on the goal of revitalising rural towns and villages as set out in Our Rural Future.
I welcome the Minister's response. I may be a city person who travels through towns and villages only when going on a weekend trip or visiting family, but there undoubtedly is a great deal of dereliction, with many unoccupied buildings. It can be shocking at times to pass through some of the smaller villages and to see the extent of, first, the housing crisis but also the image the dereliction presents.
On the issue of staffing, the Minister stated in October, "A key function of these Officers will be the development of Town Centre First Plans at local level." She described the recruitment of further staff as "well advanced". Will she provide an update on that? How many staff have been recruited to deliver this at local level? She might also comment on the implementation and evaluation of the policy.
I am pleased to hear the Minister is considering reopening the town and village renewal scheme within a relatively short timeframe. All my experiences of seeing the scheme implemented throughout the constituency of Galway East have been very positive. In light of the recent announcements regarding the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which sets out to address dereliction and bring buildings back to life to be used as housing units, aligned with and in partnership with the investment that will be made through the town and village renewal scheme, I believe we are going to see a lot of vibrancy and energy in our towns and villages in the years to come.
One project in which I have a special interest is Loughrea town hall, which recently received funding for its redevelopment as a cultural arts and enterprise centre for the town. As there is a funding shortfall associated with the increased building costs, I urge the Minister and her departmental colleagues to work in partnership with Galway County Council to address that funding shortfall in order that works can begin as soon as possible.
I would again join with colleagues here in welcoming this scheme and the work that is occurring under the various schemes. It is fantastic to see a rejuvenation going on.
I remind the Minister that Cork county is maybe seven times the size of some other counties-----
Like Cavan.
-----and when she is allocating funding to bear that in mind. We find sometimes we get the same allocation as very small counties indeed and that maybe is not fair.
With respect to acquiring buildings, is it possible to acquire land adjacent to buildings which would assist in rejuvenating the buildings and bringing them back to life? For instance, sometimes access to the upstairs of a building can be a problem and land close by can lead to other floors of buildings being used. Off-line, I can tell the Minister about a case that I have in mind. I refer not to the building itself, but maybe property close by as well which would make a significant difference to rejuvenating dereliction and vacancy.
I thank the Minister. I very much welcome all the work that the Department is doing in town and village renewal to date but also that the Minister plans to have completed in 2023.
I am wondering about the co-ordination between the Department and the local authorities because I have come across one issue recently in relation to the vacant property grant where an application was submitted over four months ago and still the local authority had not signed off on it. Is there any co-ordination to ensure that there are checks and balances so that there are not any additional hurdles for the people who want to get on, develop and get renewal into their village or town?
The other issue, which I raised previously with the Tánaiste and, indeed, with the Taoiseach, is that in some areas the reason there has been no investment over a long number of years in a particular property is because of title problems. I have suggested that local authorities would engage with the property owners about using the compulsory purchase order system-----
The Deputy can contribute again later.
-----which would allow the local authority to buy and to sell again to the person who wants to develop because it would rectify the title issue.
Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí.
First of all, in response to Deputy Paul Donnelly, 22 town regeneration officers are appointed. There are four positions left to be filled. I expect those will be filled in the coming weeks.
Second, we have a national oversight and advisory group for town centre first and it is due to meet later this month. At this meeting, the town centre first national office will outline progress to date on its work programme for the year. I will keep an eye on it to make sure that they are moving on. It is a new position and we want to work with them.
Deputy Cannon is a big supporter of Loughrea town hall. There is a request in from the local authority for more money for that project. My officials are currently going through the due diligence on that. Hopefully, when that is finished, they will make a decision and they will come with a recommendation to me at that stage. In fairness, many projects have gone over budget costing more than initially expected. We are trying to work with local authorities because we want these projects to get finished.
Deputy Stanton spoke to me directly about a project in his constituency where the community needed to acquire a piece of land and the adjacent building so that they could open up access and expand the facilities at a local library in his area. There are two options. The local authority could seek funding under the building acquisitions measure, which is open at present; or it could put together an application under town and village renewal, which will open for applications in June. By the way, in case the Deputy thinks Cork did not do well, it did, as they say up my country, "rightly". It got €34.605 million under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund. That is only one fund in my Department. I will not read out what the other counties got, but I think they are ahead.
Deputy Colm Burke talked about local authority applications. They have to come through the local authority before they get to me. We liaise with local authorities but, ultimately, they have to make the decision on what comes through.
The title problems were raised with me previously by the Deputy. That will be a matter for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
I appreciate the answer around the appointments. It is good to see 22 people have been appointed. There are four left to be appointed. That will be excellent.
In terms of the implementation, I await the first report back from that to see how it is being implemented and monitored.
I thank the Minister for that update on Loughrea town hall. There is significant potential here to develop something truly remarkable - a 156-seat theatre, an arts centre and a business incubation - that will serve not alone the needs of Loughrea but, indeed, the whole of east Galway. I am very encouraged to hear that the Minister's officials are doing an assessment of that proposal right now.
In terms of towns nationally, what sort of work does the Minister envisage happening in encouraging people to live over the shop? Loughrea Chamber of Commerce in recent years did a survey of the main street of Loughrea which during the day is an exceptionally active and vibrant place but is rendered somewhat still and silent at nighttime. I am wondering what will we do to develop the potential of those significant number of units that exist over every shop in every town in Ireland.
I thank the Minister for her earlier response and am glad that she keeps Cork to the forefront of her thoughts. That is marvellous.
The town centre first and town and village renewal schemes work to make towns nice places to visit. They are attractive and draw people in. People can socialise and enjoy themselves. They are pleasant places. However, has the Minister any interaction with the Department of Transport in order to get heavy trucks and congestion out of towns? I particularly think of Mallow. A northern relief road is planned for Mallow. The local community did a huge amount of work there to try to build up the ambience in the town and make it a nice living space but the northern relief bypass, even though over €1 million has been spent on it, has been put on the long finger. Is there any interaction between the Department and the Department of Transport with respect to getting rid of congestion such as heavy trucks, which, I am sure the Minister will agree, would benefit everybody and benefit the overall Government policy with respect to town centres first?
I very much welcome the funding the Minister has outlined for Cork. As my colleague from Cork, Deputy Stanton, clearly outlined, it is a huge county. There are lots of towns and villages throughout the place. It is important, therefore, that there is co-ordination and that where communities have a real drive on to renew and revitalise their area, there is no hurdle put in their way which prevents it from happening. It is important that there is that co-operation from the Department with the local authority in making sure that the local authority is delivering because I know the Department will deliver. It is about us all working together so that we can make really good progress in a very short time period.
My Department works very closely with the local authorities. We need them to work with us to deliver these projects locally because they are consulting with local communities and they know what they need on the ground. Only last week, my senior officials met with the director of services with responsibility for the implementation of some of the funds from my Department. It is in constant contact to see where there might be issues that we can address. It is a two-way process, let me put it that way, and we will continue to work with them.
Under the buildings acquisition measure that I introduced last year, we gave funding to local authorities to purchase two buildings which they identified with local groups could be converted into community use. Much of what I am dealing with is community and remote working and enterprise hubs. We are working with them. Many of them have bought former bank buildings and they are converted into remote working hubs or enterprise spaces. In other cases, it might have been an old primary school or a Garda station which will become a home to the local men's shed or another local community group. That is where we are keeping the focus on it.
Then there is the standard town and village renewal scheme. It provides grants of up to half a million euro. For the larger scale or over €500,000, there is the rural regeneration fund. Indeed, last week I visited Abbeyshrule in County Longford where there is an 18th century stone building that was basically a ruin.
It was being used as a farmyard. It has been completely restored and is now a remote working hub. When I was there, they said to me that they should have invited Deputy Ring because he gave them the money. It goes to show that it takes a while for some of these projects to be finished. Deputy Ring allocated them that money. They have not forgotten about it. They said to pass on their best wishes to Deputy Ring. We had a great day. We opened this lovely centre that runs right along the Royal Canal. That is the type of focus that my Department has on the community, enterprise and remote working side.
The Government announced a full suite of measures for over-the-shop property on top of what we are already doing. We approved a major expansion of the Croí Cónaithe scheme, with grants of up to €50,000 now available to bring a vacant property back into use and of up to €70,000 if it is a derelict property. I believe this is a really good initiative. I know from the inquiries coming into my constituency office that there is huge interest in it. I believe this fund can be used to renovate centre-of-town properties. It can be well spent. Some €70,000 is not to be sneezed at. It is a lot of money and it will go a long way to help people to look at renovating existing vacant houses. It will prove to be successful. I think I can leave it at that.
