Peadar Tóibín
Question:77. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development what steps her Department is taking to tackle dereliction and vacancy in rural towns and villages. [3978/24]
View answerTuesday, 30 January 2024
Questions (77)
Oral answers (21 contributions)
The issues of dereliction is a blight upon many towns across the country and the moment. There are many cases where buildings are dangerous and are falling apart. There are other cases where those buildings are centres of antisocial behaviour, drug-taking and potentially fires as well. There are also cases where businesses are significantly devalued as a result of being next to vacant buildings destroying their towns.
How much money has been drawn down and spent by the Minister's Department in making sure that vacancy is transformed into use?
Deputy Peadar Tóibín: The issue of dereliction is a blight upon many towns across the country at the moment. There are many cases where buildings are dangerous and are falling apart. There are other cases where those buildings are centres of antisocial behaviour, drug taking and potentially fires as well. There are also cases where business are significantly devalued as a result of being next to vacant buildings that are destroying their towns.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 79, 92 and 93 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 Our Rural Future vision for a thriving rural Ireland that is integral to our national economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being and development.
A key aim of both town centre first and the Our Rural Future policy is addressing vacancy and dereliction and ensuring that the policies and schemes in place directly address and tackle these issues in our rural towns and villages. This complements other national policies such as Housing for All and the national planning framework, which also aim to tackle vacancy, achieve balanced regional development and support 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.
I announced the fifth RRDF category 1 call for applications last November, with a focus on revitalising our rural towns and villages through planned and sustainable regeneration that will drive greater economic activity and footfall, address vacancy and dereliction and ensure the reuse of heritage and other existing buildings. The closing date for applications is Thursday, 8 February 2024. Applications must be submitted to my Department through local authorities.
The town and village renewal scheme was introduced in 2016 and is one of several measures in my Department designed to rejuvenate rural towns and villages throughout Ireland. Since the launch of scheme, over €156 million has been allocated to more than 1,700 projects across Ireland and has supported towns and villages the length and breadth of the country. The 2023 scheme, which I launched on 21 July 2023 with an overall fund of €15 million, will support projects that address the issue of vacancy and dereliction. This will be achieved by supporting projects that focus on town centre regeneration, enhancing our streetscapes and bringing vacant and derelict buildings back into use as community multipurpose spaces through refurbishment and renovation. This scheme closed for applications on 10 November 2023 and the competitive assessment process is currently under way. I expect to be in a position to announce the successful projects by the end of quarter 1 of 2024. I look forward to seeing a range of high-quality proposals emerging from both of these schemes.
Additionally, under the town and village renewal scheme my Department has developed the building acquisition measure, supporting rural communities to transform run-down, derelict and vacant buildings and turn them into useful community facilities that will benefit generations to come. This measure directly supports local authorities to purchase vacant and derelict buildings for future development for community purposes.
Two weeks ago, I announced funding of over €4.5 million for the 2023 building acquisition measure that supported the purchase of 24 vacant and derelict buildings across the country. Supported projects include the purchase of former Garda stations, schools, post offices, restaurants, parish halls and vacant sites to be redeveloped into 21st-century use. I look forward to seeing these buildings being developed for community use in the coming months.
My Department also supports broader practical efforts to regenerate Irish towns. Together with the Department of housing, my Department has established a national town centre first office, hosted by the Local Government Management Association to drive forward town centre first, working closely with local authorities and central government. A national oversight and advisory group, which met most recently last Friday, steers the work of the national office. Furthermore, I am funding town regeneration officers in all eligible local authorities. Their job is to lead the implementation of town centre first in their area, working closely with vacant homes officers, animating communities to develop local visions for rural towns and supporting them to leverage funding from right across government.
My Department remains absolutely committed to addressing the issues of vacancy and dereliction in our rural towns and to the success of the town centre first policy to deliver on the goal of revitalising our rural towns and villages, making them better places in which to live, work, visit and invest.
I welcome these funds and schemes but they are tackling the symptoms of the problems. The problems themselves are not being tackled. Why are so many towns and villages in this country trending towards vacancy? Why is that the case? At the heart of that is an economic model that is basically making commuter and dormitory towns of these places, where they have become hollow husks and empty towns during the daytime, where people simply sleep at night. That is happening right across the country.
The State is pulling services out of these towns. The Minister closed a social welfare office in Castlepollard, for example, which obviously reduces the footfall in the town and reduces opportunities for businesses. Fine Gael opened a constituency office in the town. If the town got a swap of a social welfare office for a Fine Gael constituency office, I know what they would prefer. That is a particular issue there.
The Government itself also owns vast tracts of vacant properties. The HSE has a portfolio of 214 vacant properties. The OPW has a portfolio of 82 vacant properties. We need to get back to how we get enterprise and business developing in these towns in the first place so we do not have to treat the symptoms.
I thank the Minister for her response, which is commendable. Certainly, the recent investment of over €4.5 million nationally to tackle dereliction and vacancy in rural Ireland, including three projects in Mayo, is a testament to this commitment. The projects in Charlestown, Bellacorick and Louisburgh, which involved the repurposing of old and derelict buildings for community use, will certainly breathe fresh air into these rural towns and villages. The diversity of buildings being revitalised - we had a former Garda station, a post office and a parish hall - leads to that.
The recruitment of town regeneration officers and vacant homes officers is crucial to activating the funding across the rural regeneration development fund, the building acquisition measure and the town and village renewal scheme, for the better local authorities and those that are in some way behind the curve. In Mayo County Council, we have one of the highest dereliction and vacancy rates across the country. These officers are crucial. I ask that they are made compulsory in the local authorities and supported. I would like to see the benefits of how we are repopulating our rural areas that may have struggled in recent years. Certainly in towns and villages I have visited, such as-----
We are way over time, Deputy.
-----Balla with the creation of an economic hub and a remote working hub, these initiatives are certainly adding to re-energising rural Ireland.
I thank the Deputies. There is a lot of work being done right across government to bring vacant and derelict buildings back into use. In the Department of Rural and Community Development, my focus is on utilising those buildings that are not really suitable for housing but can be converted for community use. Under the building acquisition measure, which was a new measure I introduced last year, we gave the funding to the local authorities to purchase the buildings that they identified with local groups so that they could convert them into community use. As I said, there are some buildings used as remote working hubs and enterprise spaces.
It is important to say that we live in a changing world. This idea that we are going to have high street shops in every town is changing. If there are young teenagers in one's house, or young people, one only has to look at the number of calls the DPD van or An Post makes with regard to online shopping.
We have to take cognisance of the fact things are changing. I want to bring more people back into communities through remote working and enterprise hubs. That in itself increases the footfall. We are working with the local authorities and the Town Centre First officers to achieve that.
Deputy Dillon proved my point in thanking the Government for giving refurbishment grants for a post office and a Garda station it closed. The point is the Government is closing key public services in these types of towns. Those buildings are becoming derelict and now the Government is coming back with a few bob to do up the windows and the roof a little bit. This is why so many of these towns are being emptied out. Yes, it is a changing world. The point is that the Government is a catalyst for the closure of a lot of the services in these towns in the first place.
Another point, and this is key, is that the Government is creating funds but making the criteria so challenging that drawdown is really difficult. The Minister for housing told me he created a grant for vacant properties to be refurbished. Over two and a half years, only €250,000 a year has been drawn down and 70 houses in total have been refurbished. Given there are 130,000 vacant homes in the country, it will take 3,300 years to refurbish them at that pace. There is no urgency in solving the problems with vacancy. The Minister's reply is simply a press statement announcing the allocation of a few million quid in order for the Government to be able to say on radio and television that it is doing its bit for rural Ireland. It is not enough by half.
From Deputy Tóibín's response, it seems he has no solutions and is just concerned with having a talking shop. The answers the Minister is providing are revitalising towns, making them more vibrant and building community spirit. The conversion of existing structures back into use is a welcome initiative and the evidence of it certainly can be seen on the ground. We have more people now living and working in rural Ireland than ever before. That is helping to create the more sustainable regional balance we require whereby people are able to live, raise a family and grow old in their communities. We have established connected working hubs, economic centres and community facilities right across rural communities. The synergy between initiatives and policies like remote working and economic hubs is commendable and really important. Investment in these schemes certainly is money well spent.
There has been massive investment right across the country. Deputy Dillon referred to projects in County Mayo. They include an allocation of €245,000 for Ballycastle and, in Balla, which I visited with him, €120,000 was given for upgrading the courthouse.
Deputy Tóibín should go around and see what is happening in his constituency. In Enfield, the fine community and enterprise hub received funding of €727,000. I have visited it.
I worked on its reopening.
Only a couple of weeks ago, also in Enfield, the old parish hall was purchased for €250,000 for the use of the community.
I worked on that too.
These allocations are making a huge difference. If the Deputy goes to Trim, he will see a fine library and cultural centre, which has had €4.47 million allocated to it.
I campaigned for that.
Deputy English was very busy making sure those projects advanced. He supported me in that but Deputy Tóibín votes against everything I try to do.
I campaigned for all three of those projects.
Deputy English supported me in trying to get the funding but Deputy Tóibín criticises me. All he comes in here to do is give out.
We are over time.
The Deputy is talking through his hat most of the time.
We will try to avoid personal comments. It is time to move on.
Question No. 78 answered with Question No. 74.