Town Centre First Policy: Statements

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Peter Burke)

I welcome the opportunity to come before the House to discuss the recently published town centre first policy. We all have particular towns that are close to our hearts, places we wish to see grow and thrive.

Unfortunately, many of our towns are in need of attention and action to improve their appearance and attraction. The aim of the town centre first policy is to address the problems of our towns and to provide a route to their regeneration. This policy, launched on 4 February in Moate, represents an important step in supporting the future development and regeneration of towns across our country. It is a key element of the programme for Government and it recognises the importance of towns as a focus for enabling the social, economic and environmental development of our communities.

The development of a town centre first policy is also a key measure under the Government's Our Rural Future policy. The town centre first policy was jointly developed by Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Rural and Community Development and was also informed by the work of a town centre first interdepartmental group established in November 2020 to consider the regeneration of towns and villages nationally. A town centre first advisory group was also established, which I chaired, to bring in a broader group of stakeholders to inform the new policy. The town centre first policy contains 33 unique actions, which collectively will create the necessary framework to support our towns the tools and resources they need to become more viable and attractive places in which to live, work, visit and run a business. While the time allotted for this debate does not permit me to discuss all of these actions in detail, I will give an overview of the key elements of the town centre first approach.

The town centre first policy recognises that a solely top-down approach to the development of our towns is not appropriate to the challenge that we face. Instead, the policy sets out an innovative approach, where local communities and local businesses can be central to re-imagining their own towns and planning their own futures. Every town is different and, therefore, the policy acknowledges that there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work. By recognising and supporting this diversity, the policy can deliver the outcomes we all want, tailored to the unique and individual needs of our towns. The town centre first policy is focused, therefore, on supporting the town team of the local community in taking action to develop and regenerate their town. The town teams are drawn from local residents, business people, community representatives and others, all united by a shared will to improve the place in which they live and work for the benefit of residents and visitors alike. The town team has a unique position in the community as the local experts on their area and will be empowered and supported to take a lead on the development of interventions that can make positive long-term changes for their town.

The town centre first policy tasks the town team with preparing a town centre first plan. These are non-statutory plans that will identify challenges, actions and integrated responses across a number of themes, including business-commercial, community-cultural, housing, built environment and heritage. The development of high-quality town centre first plans will serve to maximise the impact of investment from a range of funding streams available for town regeneration across a number of Departments and agencies, including the flagship urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, and the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, which are already investing more than €600 million in regeneration projects in towns throughout the country. In December 2021, €2.6 million was provided by the Department of Rural and Community Development to deliver town centre first plans in 26 towns. This first phase of funding will support each local authority, working with a town team, to develop a bespoke plan to guide the development of a town and to develop learnings and best practices to assist other towns to develop plans in future. Further towns will be selected for town centre first plan funding in future as the town centre first policy is rolled out.

There will also be a third call for project proposals under the URDF fund in the second half of 2022. This will include invitations to projects specifically focused on the implementation of the town centre first policy. In addition, the Department of Rural and Community Development launched a fourth call for category 1 projects through the RRDF last December. This call placed an emphasis on town centre first policies, which include driving economic growth, combatting dereliction and breathing new life into town centres. The town and village renewal scheme, also under the remit of the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, now funds large-scale projects of up to €500,000 to support the town centre first policy and focuses on vacancy, dereliction and town centre renewal. A 2022 scheme will be launched in the coming months.

The town centre first policy recognises the critical role the local government sector will have in co-ordinating and driving the town centre first agenda locally and in accessing the funding streams that will enable development initiatives to be realised and in connecting locally based projects with national funding programmes. Local authorities are well positioned to work with their local communities in formulating specific actions at a local level through the town centre first plan process in order that proposals are firmly based on local knowledge in combination with technical support and concrete measures, including access to funding to successfully drive the implementation of the town centre first policy. To support this work, local authorities with towns will be provided with a dedicated post to lead town centre first implementation at a local level, including supporting local town teams. Funding of €2 million has been provided for town regeneration officer roles.

The town centre first policy recognises that many towns are successfully undertaking regeneration actions and initiatives. They have already organised locally to progress local development projects and programmes to improve the town's environment and economy. The town centre first policy appreciates the significant benefits that can be gained by communities and their towns learning from each other and sharing experience, particularly towns that have similar characteristics and contexts and which inevitably face common challenges. There is great value in exchanging and developing best practice approaches to the many aspects of town regeneration, helping all to progress and develop, hearing from those who have made mistakes and learning from them.

One of the key actions of the policy is the establishment of a town centre first national office to drive and co-ordinate the implementation of the policy across the country. A key responsibility of this office will be to lead on and develop best practice guidance and facilitate the town regeneration officers and town teams to follow exemplary practice. This guidance will form part of a national town centre first toolkit. The toolkit will inform local approaches to town regeneration and will encompass specific strands targeting key factors such as urban development, economic enterprise development, community engagement, digitalisation and climate action. The town centre first toolkit will build on work developed by the Heritage Council in collaboration with others in establishing and delivering the collaborative town centre health check programme for many of our heritage towns.

The national town centre first office will also support the work of the local authority town centre first officers through the establishment of a national town centre first officer network. This office will be co-funded by the Departments of Rural and Community Development and Housing, Local Government and Heritage and will be housed in the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA. Discussions between our Departments and the LGMA on its establishment are well advanced, with the first step being the imminent recruitment of a national director for town centre first.

To further ensure that effective best-practice drives the implementation of town centre first, a number of pathfinder or early-stage towns will be identified nationally to act as early priority demonstrators of the town centre first policy approach. These selected towns will be at different stages of the town centre first process, from background research and analysis, preparation of the town centre first plan and project development to plan implementation and delivery. Pathfinders will also be subject to a focused collaboration with funders and the relevant agencies involved. A central objective of town centre first is to assist those towns that in the past have not had sufficient capacity to shape their own development. The pathfinder towns will help to inform the approach to supporting towns that are at an early stage in the town centre first process. While the town centre first policy recognises the critical role that local authority and expertise will play in the successful delivery of our targeted outcomes. It is also clear that success will require governance and oversight structures.

To that end, town centre first will establish a national oversight and advisory group to set the agenda, prepare a high-level action plan and ultimately oversee the implementation of the overall programme. This group will include representation from local government, Departments, agencies and wider expert representation and will also link directly with town teams to provide a feedback loop on the progression of the overall programme.

The enabling framework I have outlined will be established through town centre first and will support the delivery of key outcomes across a wide range of policy areas. I will draw attention, in particular, to housing, local economic development and heritage-led regeneration, areas in which I feel town centre first has the potential to be particularly impactful. Through the town centre first policy, there is an opportunity to collaborate and continue the provision of much-needed new homes in the heart of our communities. Many local services people need homes that are available on their own doorsteps, close to their neighbours and within a short walking distance.

Considerable housing potential in towns is tied up in existing buildings and premises that may have fallen into disuse and disrepair. We are all aware of buildings around our towns that appear to be vacant and are falling into dereliction, contributing to a poor appearance and not reflecting local pride of place. Town centre first has a strong focus on measures to assist this type of underused building stock to come back into residential use and breathe new life into our towns, with additional people living in and around the town centre and the new footfall and opportunities that this creates. What are known as backland and brownfield sites are often underutilised and can be developed for quality housing to a high design standard. Nothing represents the health of a town better than people visible on its streets and public spaces, going about their daily business.

Through targeted programmes such as the Croí Cónaithe fund and others focusing on tackling vacancy and dereliction, new homes will be delivered in our towns, with a variety and choice of accommodation for a range of household types, whether families and individuals, all with different housing needs. There are many current examples where disused buildings have been successfully redeveloped as homes. The learning from these projects can, through the town centre first toolkit, help to scale these activities up and deliver on a more widespread basis to meet the strong desire of many people to live in our towns.

Successful towns are underpinned by a strong local economy and the creation of sustainable employment for the local community. Supporting businesses of all sizes, whether indigenous enterprise or foreign investment, can act as a real catalyst for town regeneration, strengthen the local economic activity and provide footfall within the town centre. We have seen over the past two years the value of our towns in their role in generating economic activity and enterprise. The attraction of our towns for people to visit and spend time in can be enhanced through the town centre first process, seeking to raise the quality of the town environment and its appeal as a place for businesses and investors.

The local economic and community plan, activities of the local enterprise office, LEO, and other local and national agencies can feed into the economic and employment aspects of the town centre first plan. Wider national Government supports for businesses, such as grant aid, mentoring, skill development and fostering innovation, can also be focused through town centre first at a town level.

Changing work and commuting patterns resulting from the pandemic are an ongoing opportunity to regenerate our towns. Many enterprise and connected working hubs are being created throughout the country, providing important workspace for local employment and also generating footfall by bringing people into the town for work purposes with consequent beneficial impacts on economic and social activity.

Local heritage is often what provides distinct character and interest in a town, built up over generations. The local community cherishes a church, historical site or local monument, taking great pride in the meaning and the connection it can often provide to the history of the town and events that have taken place there. Many towns are now realising the potential for their local heritage to be a central part of their town regeneration plan. Heritage can provide a strong sense of local identity and interest that can be an attraction for visitors and businesses alike. Towns such as Clonakilty, Westport and Kilkenny have shown the way in reaping the reward of such heritage-led regeneration through investing in their heritage, complemented by public realm improvements and cultural and social events to distinguish their town as a place of interest and activity. They have become destinations in which people want to spend time. The town centre first policy recognises the value and potential of local heritage and seeks to ensure it is a key element of the town centre first plan in enabling a town’s future development.

Tourism centred around the heritage and cultural attraction of a town can be an important driver in the local economy, supporting local businesses in the hospitality and entertainment sectors in particular, which, in turn, are of benefit to local residents. The town centre first policy provides an opportunity for enhanced measures to protect and preserve local heritage but also for it to be properly recognised and valued as a potential economic driver for the wider overall regeneration of the town.

I firmly believe that the town centre first policy, as it has been developed, recognises the dynamic and multifaceted nature of what makes Irish towns vibrant and enjoyable places to live. It also recognises that this very dynamism means that there can be no single one-size-fits-all solution to the challenge of town regeneration and, therefore, successful solutions must be drawn from the expertise and pride of place of the local communities. By developing a national framework, through the establishment of the national town centre first office and the national oversight and advisory group, town centre first can disseminate the lessons learned from successful grassroots projects, informed by experience, expert opinion and advice, to town teams across the country. The development of the town centre first officer role at the local authority level will serve as a vital lynchpin in the delivery of the wider town centre first policy, particularly by supporting town teams in the development and delivery of their town centre first plans. Town centre first will enable towns of many different types and scales across the country to prosper and develop, providing the proper supports and resources for all to benefit and for the result to be experienced by all the community.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Is there a copy of the Minister of State's speech available?

Deputy Peter Burke

There is.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I do not think it is available at the moment.

Deputy Peter Burke

I think it is available. It should be.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I do not know that it is.

Deputy Peter Burke

I will check with my office immediately.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I call Deputy Ó Broin. I am not sure how he is sharing his time. I have a list of names in front of me.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

We know how we are sharing it.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Okay. That is important.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

We are as disciplined as ever.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

It would be helpful if I knew but it is more important that the Deputies know.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

I thank the Minister of State for the opportunity to discuss this important issue and for his opening remarks. Sinn Féin will welcome any plan, strategy or fund that aims to address the crises in many of our urban centres in our towns and cities. We all have direct experience in our constituencies of urban centres that are blighted by dereliction, vacancy, traffic congestion and poor public realm facilities. One of the consequences of that, of course, has been the loss of population in those urban centres. Many towns and cities have experienced that. The consequence, of course, has been far too much suburban sprawl and unregulated ribbon development in the countryside. The reason I say that is those types of poor developments as a result of poor planning and settlement patterns have a real cost. They have a cost to individuals in increased commuting times, which have a cost in their personal and family lives. They also have a huge cost to our climate. Anything the Government does to try to reverse those trends of the past number of decades will have the support of my party.

It is important to reflect for a moment on why we are here because if any plan is going to tackle the problems, it is important that we clearly understand those problems. We have had, and in some cases continue to have, far too much bad planning and poor implementation of the good planning frameworks in our statutes. We have had, and continue to have, weak local government. I know the Minister is battling hard with his colleagues in government to try to advance the legislation for the directly elected mayor of Limerick.

The fact he has had to have that battle shows there is still resistance and we need to be honest about that, within both Departments and State agencies, if we are to devolve and decentralise powers in a way we know makes eminent sense, including for the purposes of achieving the objectives of this strategy.

We have had far too little capital spending, particularly through our local authorities, in tackling dereliction and town centre decline. Until now, we certainly have had limited, if any, lead from central government and weak co-ordination of stakeholders. We need to learn the lesson of the failure of one of the previous Government's key plans in this area, namely, the significant section of its housing plan, Rebuilding Ireland, dedicated to tackling housing vacancy. I mention that because the Minister of State raised the importance of dealing with this issue, on which I agree completely. Rebuilding Ireland had a very modest target of bringing more than 6,000 vacant homes back into use through a number of schemes that were well designed but poorly resourced. In fact, only 1,600 of those properties were brought in over the lifetime of the schemes, which shows us the challenges ahead.

There are many positives in terms of the theory in the policy launched by the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, a number of weeks ago. We support those aspects and will work with the Government on them. However, I want to express our concerns about the policy in a collaborative spirit in the hope the Minister of State will take some of them on board as the plan is rolled out. First, I am not so sure of the merit of non-statutory plans. From our experience as local councillors, we know that when a plan is not statutory, the likelihood of its being fully implemented is reduced. Clearly, with any new approach, there is often a desire to start at a non-statutory level. However, if these non-statutory plans are found not to be implemented, we may need to think about revising that policy.

Notwithstanding that the funding measures the Minister and Minister of State announced recently are welcome, they are also far too modest, particularly given the scale of the challenge. It is a classic case of having a very good theory and plan but if the resourcing for the full implementation of that plan is not in place from the start, it can lead to inevitable problems as we go down the road. We urge the Government to address those problems if and when they happen.

I want to talk about the work of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, of which I am a member. At the request of the Chairman, we have undertaken a number of very productive public sessions on precisely the issues we are discussing, with the focus as much on cities as on towns and how we can deal with the interlocking issues of dereliction, vacancy and urban decline. Two of the best presentations we had in our deliberations were from Orla Murphy, assistant professor in the school of architecture at UCD, and Giulia Vallone, Cork County Council architect, who has some very direct, hands-on experience. Many of the arguments they made in their submissions have found their way into the content of this plan, which is very welcome. They have expertise and knowledge on how these things are best done, including in locations such as Clonakilty, which the Minister of State rightly referred to as an exemplar of how to proceed in a predominantly rural town. Ms Murphy also talked at great length to me, the Chairman and others about the great success in this regard in Scotland. If the views of these experts are listened to as the plan is implemented, we will all be better off as it progresses in subsequent years.

One of the key issues I urge the Minister of State to do more on, and we will work constructively with him on it, is, as I said, the question of having statutory plans or even plans that may start off as non-statutory but, through some form of procedure, can become statutory. It is also crucial that we properly resource local authorities. Commitments were given in the past, for example, to have dedicated vacant homes officers in every local authority. For far too long, however, that has not been the case and the figures are still very low. It would be much better to ensure we have dedicated town centre first officers in local authorities from the outset. The Chairman of the housing committee has a wish list he keeps reminding us of and this is one of the issues on it, about which he is reminding his Government colleagues. He has my full support in that. We need more than town centre first officers. We also need dedicated vacant homes officers in every local authority, particularly the large urban ones. In fact, there would be an argument in Cork city and Dublin city to have more than one, given the vacancy rate.

We also need more county architects. For instance, the lesson from Cork - I was really impressed by the council's presentation to the committee - is that where there are dedicated county architects with real experience in this field, they can bring a level of expertise in terms of good-quality place-making alongside the work of town centre first officers and vacant homes officers. There is a need to co-ordinate efforts in the best interests of all. Between now and the next budget, the Government will have to undertake a serious review of the levels of capital investment in these projects, particularly with respect to vacant homes. The target of 2,000 homes to be returned from vacancy through the compulsory purchase order, CPO, programme and several thousand through Croí Cónaithe over the lifetime of the Government is simply too low. We do not have proper data, as the Minister of State knows, on the full level of vacancy. GeoDirectory probably gives us the most accurate estimate, which is 90,000 at this time. As we know from the Scottish system, however, even if there are 90,000 vacant units, within that number will be different types and that needs to be addressed. The Government should seriously consider setting a target within its public, social and affordable housing programme of a set number of units every year, which should be at least 20%, to come from vacant and derelict stock. This would present a real challenge to local authorities but it is cheaper, quicker and more climate-friendly to use existing structures and stock than to rely on new builds. Of course, the key in all of this is affordability. If the work we are doing in our city and town centres is not affordable, people will not be able to afford to live there.

This is a project on which we will work with the Minister of State. We would like him to listen to the concerns we express and any constructive criticisms we make. We are all united in wanting to see our town centres returned to vibrancy, population growth and affordability as soon as possible.

Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Transforming how we see towns will be at the heart of how we deal with our changing world. In both rural and urban areas, we need to bring people back to the town centre, close to services, shops and schools and able to walk or cycle wherever they need and leave the car behind. There has been much talk of the 15-minute city but we need the 15-minute town as well. This fund has potential in a situation where dereliction is a major blight in many of our towns. Deputy Ó Broin has clearly outlined some of the issues that need to be resolved to ensure the plan meets its full potential.

Many towns in my constituency can benefit from this strategy in the future, including Carrigaline, Crosshaven and Passage West. I am particularly keen to see regeneration of the docks site in Passage West. We need a plan to transform it to become the new central hub of the town. As a massive 8-acre site in the middle of the town, it has huge potential. The county council should proceed with a master plan for the site and go from there. This is something for which I have been pushing for several years. It is key to the regeneration and revitalisation of a marvellous town.

The master planning process that is proposed to be funded is welcome but, on its own, it will not work. A more aggressive strategy on dereliction is needed from the local authorities. Deputy Ó Broin's point about dereliction officers is well made. We need councils to take on properties and property owners where those properties are derelict. They must use the powers they have, including, if necessary, CPOs. I welcome that Cork City Council has shown this more aggressive approach in recent weeks in respect of North Main Street and Barrack Street. However, it cannot avail of this fund for urban villages and towns that could benefit from it in tackling dereliction and restoring life to them. I think of areas such as Barrack Street, the Bandon Road district, Douglas village, the South Parish and Middle Parish. These urban villages and towns could benefit from the fund. Many small but densely built streets, with small houses, in these areas have great potential. They were once at the heart of thriving communities. Again, the council should take an aggressive approach and use those properties for young families, not just to tackle the housing crisis but to revitalise the areas and bring about those 15-minute cities and 15-minute neighbourhoods. It would do incredible good to see that happen in areas such as Bandon Road, Barrack Street, Friars Walk, the South Parish and Middle Parish, Evergreen Street, Albert Street and all the surrounding areas that made up the traditional heart of the south side, middle and north side of Cork city. They need to be made once again into thriving communities and key to that is tackling dereliction. These properties need to be used for social and affordable housing as well as for private development and use in a private capacity. We need to bring communities back to these neighbourhoods and bring life to them.

The fund is welcome but it is a shame there are communities in cities that cannot benefit from it. When we think of towns and villages, we need to think of urban towns and villages by the same token.

I urge the Minister of State to consider that and we look forward to engaging with this fund for the towns that can qualify for it at the moment.

Deputy Mark Ward

Rowlagh is in north Clondalkin and it is the parish I grew up in. The area is 40 years old and it has seen many changes. When we first moved into the area, there was nothing there. It was an area of huge disadvantage and a victim of bad planning, and this created many socioeconomic problems in the area. There was no transport, shops or schools and everything the area had we had to fight for as a community. My first experience of community activism was getting involved in the campaign for St. Kevin’s Community College. As pupils we were bussed up to Lucan to a building that was not fit for purpose until we finally got a school. Because of its origins, St. Kevin’s Community College regularly punches above its weight, and only two weeks ago it became the only DEIS school in the State to offer every student a piece of IT equipment in a scheme that was launched by An Taoiseach.

Why am I telling the Minister of State this? I am doing so because the landscape of our area has changed because of this community activism. I will bring the Minister of State on a virtual walk-through of Rowlagh village, and I will start off with the Dóchas Family Centre, which provides support for children who may have emotional and behavioural needs. Rowlagh Community Centre is next and it was built with funds the community fundraised itself. Áras Rualach is a centre for the unemployed and it also has the Rowlagh Women’s Group and a crèche, and it is where I have my constituency offices. There are many vibrant shops and pubs in the area, which create local employment. There is a health centre, which is outdated, but there is a campaign to have a fit-for-purpose modern-day primary healthcare centre in the area. There is a modern credit union building up the road, and the latest jewel in the crown of Rowlagh is the north Clondalkin library. I had the pleasure of turning the sod on this in my stint as mayor in 2018, and this has brought a new energy to our area. We have schools, shops and a lot of residential homes, including older person-specific homes.

Why am I telling the Minister of State this? I do because Rowlagh is a village in everything but name and it has every amenity that a village could want. South Dublin County Council is going through its county development plan and our councillors have made a number of submissions to see Rowlagh recognised as a village. This would lift the area and allow it to avail of additional resources that are outlined in the town centre first policy.

Deputy Thomas Gould

I was extremely disappointed last week to learn that Blackpool, in the heart of my community, will not be included in the town centre first policy and therefore will miss out on any funding that will be available. Blackpool is a beautiful and historic village in the heart of Cork city that has so much unlocked potential. I have previously invited the Minister to come to Cork and look at the levels of dereliction in this area, but he has refused to do so, saying he has already seen it. No one who has walked through Blackpool would have excluded the village from this project. While it is beside the city centre, Blackpool has the potential to be a vibrant and bustling village in its own right. It is only this Government’s exclusion of it that is preventing this.

The town centre first policy does little to address the failure of local authorities to identify and collect the derelict sites levy. There are still no initiatives from the Government to improve the collection of the levy and I cannot understand why. Collecting the derelict sites levy would create funding streams for local authorities to add and compulsorily purchase more sites and ultimately to reduce dereliction. The Minister of State needs to intervene here because we are seeing wasted potential across our cities and communities and the Government is shrugging its shoulders and blaming local authorities once again, something it always does when it is not doing its job.

The last available data on vacancy are from 2016 and, according to those and a collation of these data by Eoghan Ua Laoghaire Mac Giolla Phádraig, there were parts of Cork city with vacancy rates of 14%. The first action in the National Vacant Housing Reuse Strategy 2018-2021 was to "Establish robust, accurate, consistent and up-to-date data sets on vacancy”, and yet I am talking to the Minister of State today and we still cannot find accurate data. The Government has failed to tackle vacancy and dereliction because Fine Gael and others in government are more interested in supporting developers and land hoarders. In the past week, six families and individuals have come to me with eviction notices. Last Friday, a person went into emergency accommodation in Cork. This person is a college graduate with a degree who is going for a masters in September with a full-time job but has been made homeless because of the Government’s policies. How can the Government stand over that?

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Deputy Daly seems to be the last speaker so he has more time.

Deputy Pa Daly

I will rant away for a while so. I welcome the town centre first plan and the intentions are good. A lot of it sounds great such as the goal of commissioning research to inform the assessment of cost benefit and social return on investment in town centres to better inform public policy interventions. That sounds great if you could understand what it means. I will give two practical examples of why the town centre first initiative is not working and I will give the example of Tralee town centre. It is the only part of the county that between 2005 and 2011 had a population decline at the height of the Celtic tiger.

One problem is that there is a 100% waiver of commercial rates for vacant commercial premises where the owner of the property says he or she is trying to sell the property. This should be the exception rather than the rule. If a premises is left empty for more than 12 months it should either be sold or leased or the owner should be punished by the imposition of full commercial rates. In the UK, where these problems have been seen in the past 20 to 30 years, they have come to the conclusion that it is not good enough just to have people living in the town centre; people must also be working there. Allowing a situation where people can continue to sit on properties has to be unacceptable and the Government needs to intervene to make it impossible for that type of situation to continue.

The other example I will give is of the courthouse on Ashe Street in Tralee town centre. The courthouse has been there since the days of Daniel O’Connell and it was quarried from local limestone in the town park. It is literally part of the town and has been for many years. It saw many trials and is part of the history and social fabric of the town. There is a proposal, with the collaboration of Kerry County Council management, to move the Courts Service to another vacant premises in the town centre, a brown centre site as the Minister of State said. That is a retrograde step and goes against nearly every single one of the recommendations in the town centre first plan. This includes climate change because a new building will have to be built close to the town centre. There is no additional benefit to the town from the land which was given away to the town council at the time by Kerry Group. To advance this type of development in the town centre and to bring jobs into Tralee town centre it should be kept on Ashe Street, where it has been for 170 years. Many people will say it does not fit the needs of a modern court building or that the Courts Service has nothing to do with the Government, which is the last answer I got. I was told I would have to talk to the Courts Service about it, but the Minister of State is in government, so if he is serious about the town centre of the only large town in the whole of Cork, Limerick and Kerry, namely, Tralee, he will have to intervene to make sure there is an additional benefit to the town centre by keeping court services there.

Architects were mentioned and architects have decided that a grade 2 or 3 heritage architectural review must take place before any courthouse is abandoned, but that has been ignored in this situation. There is a plan but it is a bad plan, and to have all the other things that are mentioned in the town centre first plan, such as helping with the social and cultural future of the town, getting people into the town centre, and having people living there, it is important the Denny site, which is free, would be used for that. We should enhance and refurbish the courthouse in Tralee and the Government needs to intervene in that.

I want to mention something I have noticed over the past ten or 15 years. If a council is dealing with a local authority estate, it has an obligation to have proper estate management in place. Far too often I have seen that there is no estate management or proper balance when councils deal with town centres.

If there are to be grants for refurbishing houses and getting people to live in the centre of towns, an emphasis should be put on people who will live there as owner-occupiers rather than just having an investment in a property to rent it out to anybody.

I was looking up the census of Rock Street in Tralee town centre. Approximately 400 people were living on that street in their own places according to the census of 1911. Now, there are approximately 25. If we want people living in the town centre, that has to be pushed. We also have to get people working in there, and that means maintaining, keeping, enhancing and developing the structures already there, and if there is an extra space, such as there is in Tralee town, moving to that to encourage new centres where people can, as it says in the plan, enhance the cultural element of the town.

Deputy Steven Matthews

I welcome this Government policy and acknowledge the work that both the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, have put into this policy to deliver it, and to do so quickly. I also acknowledge the role of my Green Party colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, in this. In all the years I have known the Minister of State in his work as a councillor in Kilkenny, he has always pushed this town centre first ideal, based on the Scottish town centre first policy. He worked hard during our programme for Government negotiations to get it in there. I am delighted to see it and a commitment in the programme for Government delivered in a timely manner.

The Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage met recently, to which Deputy Ó Broin referred. Deputy Gould was also at those meetings. We had a series of three meetings on urban and rural regeneration. Over the course of those nine hours of meetings, there was significant engagement from all the committee members, because this is an issue that affects every constituency. Every Deputy and Senator has a view on this and wants to address it and see towns become liveable, vibrant places again.

During the course of those meetings, we had experts and practitioners in, such as architects, researchers and academics - people who were working at the coalface of trying to improve our towns - local authorities and planners. I look forward to that committee report. I hope we will have it ready within a couple of weeks. I would like to bring it to the floor of the Oireachtas to debate because that is something that is available. We had cross-party support at committee and I hope all Members across the House would support me in bringing that report here. Town centre first policy would support many of the views and much of what we heard at the committee meetings as reflected in many of the recommendations that go into the report.

I am especially impressed with the work of the Heritage Council. It is fair to mention the tremendous work Ms Alison Harvey has done on a limited budget. One of the best things we could do would be to clone her and set her out on all the towns. The collaborative town centre health check is critical to how a town develops. It is in that very word - collaborative. It brings all those stakeholders together. It does not become a plan that is led by the chamber, the local authority, the planners or one or two interest groups. It is collaborative. It brings every stakeholder together, such as the voluntary groups, and has input from everybody. The health check programme has very much benefited those towns because it provides the baseline of evidence, so that when you want to proceed with certain works, you have the evidence and stakeholder engagement.

I will read from the submission from the Heritage Council to that Oireachtas committee because it points out the value of the collaborative town centre health check programme. The reason the Heritage Council says it is successful is because, "It is a data driven programme, which is evidence based and creates scientific baseline datasets capturing economic, spatial, commercial, social and cultural activities." We need to capture all of those different facets of our town. The submission goes on to say, "The process creates spatial data, a GeoHive, which in turn supports the implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals", and "It supports creation of data for EU funding streams". We need to have this evidence base to draw on all the funding streams. The submission further states, "It results in the creation of local regeneration ‘engines’". It revitalises all those voluntary community and other groups that have their towns at heart. These are people who live in the towns, are proud of them, have grown up there, moved there and are bringing their children up there, who want to be part of it, see their town thrive, and want it to be a nice place to live.

To fund that, we must crack the issue of dereliction and vacancy. It is something that is tangible to everybody. Going through any town in Ireland, vacancy and dereliction jump out and are obvious. On Tuesday, I briefed Members on the vacancy, dereliction and regeneration Bill I produced. That Bill proposes to introduce dereliction and vacancy taxes, which will be key. We make it a tax, rather than a levy.

Our local authorities have not been active enough in addressing dereliction and getting sites onto their derelict sites register and following up with the levy. We saw figures for 2020 of approximately €5.5 million imposed in dereliction levies but less than 10% of that being collected. We have an issue there. If we make it a tax and get Revenue to deal with it, we have that income stream. People react much quicker to a Revenue envelope dropping in the door than they do to a local authority envelope. It will also address vacancy. We have up to 180,000 vacant homes and premises throughout Ireland, so this is key to it as well.

It is critically important we reallocate space for people in the towns as well and that we take those brave decisions to remove parking and restrict the car dominance that has happened in our towns. We need to flip the balance on the proportion of town streets in Ireland given to cars compared with those given to children, elderly people or those walking or cycling. I challenge any town in this country to trial pedestrianisation such as what Mr. Simon Wall did in Westport when he was starting off. It was trialled, there was opposition, people said it would not work, but it did work. That is the value of having a county architect, someone who has that vision to pull all the different strands together and make it work.

Deputy Alan Farrell

I appreciate the comments of my colleagues. I was going to finish on the benefits the town centre first policy has for our climate, but I will start with them, given my colleague has ended with his. I agree with him that it is very beneficial to have a county architect involved in these things. As a former councillor, along with my colleague, Deputy O'Callaghan, in the same electoral ward all those years ago, we had a county manager who was an architect, which was very beneficial.

However, we made mistakes where significant out-of-town development, especially retail development, occurred, and that has predicated this policy. Looking back as a former councillor 11 years ago who started back in 2004, I regret that it was the common and done thing. As a result of those development plans that passed in the 2000s and were developed in that decade and into the latter part of the past decade, we saw a lot of development occurring outside of town centres which drew people out of the town and had a very negative consequence, especially when the economy crashed.

It is very positive that the Government has taken this step, which has followed on from a number of other policies done on a smaller scale. This, as an opportunity to link everybody in to a policy driven on a local basis, is a welcome initiative. The town centre first policy, as my colleague mentioned in terms of dereliction, encourages people to reuse their town centre in terms of spaces above shops and derelict sites, among other things. The Minister has pushed very hard for derelict pubs, for instance, to be retasked as residential without the need for planning permission, which again is a very welcome endeavour, because there are a number of such establishments.

I can think of a couple in my constituency that would benefit very much from that policy initiative. I believe this policy will inject new life into our towns and drive local jobs. It will take people out of cars. It will not even require them to use their cars if they are living or working, or both, in a town centre. That is to be welcomed.

The development of the national oversight and advisory group along with town centre first policy officers in local authorities will help ensure the implementation of this policy is as smooth as possible. Throughout the pandemic, we saw the value of our localities, particularly when we were restricted to 2 km. That seems far-fetched now but it was only last year. We saw the potential being delivered in towns and communities throughout the country, with outdoor dining and all the various attributes of the pandemic. The policy will focus on dereliction and vacant properties, bringing great economic advantages to towns.

The 2016 census identified that 58% of people in Ireland actually live in towns and villages, and thus this policy will not leave any community untouched. In conjunction with the likes of the national broadband plan, we will see the expansion of remote working hubs, which again was highlighted this week by the relevant Minister. That has the potential to inject a new lease of life into many communities that perhaps have been a little neglected in recent decades.

My colleague also mentioned the engagement with voluntary, resident and business groups. That in itself as a driver of community-led plans is a real benefit to what this policy offers communities. Lusk in my constituency was one of the first communities under the scheme to receive a grant of €100,000 of the €2.6 million that was allocated in December of last year.

Investing in our towns will also help ease the housing burden on our major urban centres, combined with Government action on rural and urban regeneration and development as well as the LEADER programme. We now have the possibility to improve radically the standard of living within our towns. I anticipate that many of the communities in my constituency of Fingal, particularly in the northern end in Rush, Lusk, Donabate, Skerries, Balbriggan and beyond, and especially the smaller towns sandwiched between the M1 and M2, will have a real opportunity to look at this plan and get together with the county council and their councillors to work out something that will be of benefit to the community and society at large.

The scheme will also help aid our goals in creating more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly towns. The strength of the policy lies within its flexibility and tailored approach. There is a simplified grant process with wrap-around supports and the ability to impact on the biggest challenges in our country, namely, housing, climate action and job creation.

I started with the climate part of it, which is very much to be welcomed because there are great opportunities. If we encourage more people to live in our centres in communities, as I mentioned, they will have less distance to travel. Even things like encouraging them to use public transport becomes much easier to do, particularly in the context of the investment we have seen in public transport throughout the country. Admittedly, it is focused one third or two thirds towards our major cities, but one of the fantastic attributes, especially within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, is the significant spend on community infrastructure like footpaths, cycle tracks and even pedestrianisation. While I agree with that in principle, it has to go through the correct legal process, which as my colleague will know, is a bone of contention in my community.

Deputy Martin Browne

I welcome the concept of town centre first. There are too many town centres that just do not work as they could. Town centres are taken away from people because main traffic arteries run through them, like in Tipperary town. This week, the Minister for Transport again confirmed to me that a bypass of Tipperary town will be considered by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, for prioritisation in this context. In his reply to me, the Minister also noted that a consequence of the bypass would facilitate compact growth and improve road safety. Anything that promotes and allows for the development of town centres is welcome but this compact growth must be appropriately planned for. Tipperary town has a great revitalisation task force, which has been studying in detail the demographics of the town, the different needs of its people, its commercial needs and potential opportunities. It is carrying out great work but the supports and funding needed to bring its plans and vision into reality must accompany that work.

The work being carried out by Tipperary town could also be used as a national showcase of how a strategy to reclaim a town centre can be realised if the funding is provided and balanced regional development is really applied. Another town in my constituency, Roscrea, was chosen for pilot funding under this scheme. Again, that allocation is very welcome but it cannot end there. The needs of towns throughout this country vary but one constant is housing and Roscrea, like any other, has this need.

Are community-centred clubs like boxing or jujitsu clubs, which work to give young people a positive way of using their time, being considered? A number are either in desperate need of new accommodation or have fallen behind in their recent rent because of the impact of Covid-19. They need help but fall through the cracks in funding streams. For the clubs looking for accommodation but that cannot seem to qualify, it is very frustrating to see empty buildings, including unused IDA buildings that would be ideal, not being made available to them.

Tipperary’s rail network is underused, with timetables poorly planned. There have been some good murmurings about the additional service on the Limerick to Ballybrophy line. This must be delivered upon but this attitude also needs to be applied to the Limerick Junction-Waterford line. Our town centres need to be developed but this also involves the use of rail to connect them, where possible, which would take traffic off roads like the N24 and increase regional trade routes. On this, I notice the silence with which we are being met regarding the suspension of funding for the N24-N25 road development. The counties concerned have serious concerns and deserve engagement immediately.

In all, town centre first is a positive concept but only if it is visionary. Many people in the towns concerned offer that vision and they must be listened to and adequately resourced.

Deputy Martin Kenny

The town centre first policy and concept is very welcome. It is a new departure and we certainly hope it gets the investment it deserves. That is critical to all of this.

Across my constituency, which is mainly in a rural area, we have an awful lot of smaller towns. Sligo town is the largest with approximately 20,000 inhabitants, and yet when one walks through Sligo town, one sees so much dereliction and so many empty shops and pubs and old houses on large streets. They are falling into dereliction. That is the same pattern across all the smaller towns as well.

I have spoken on different occasions to county managers and people in the planning departments in counties Leitrim, Roscommon and Sligo in respect of issues around this. It comes back to the same thing whereby the people who own many of these properties in many of these towns do not own assets; they own liabilities. They have an awful problem in doing anything with them. They cannot get money from a bank or anywhere to put investment into them to turn them into something that will be an asset. They find it very difficult to do anything with them. It is the same in many towns.

I was driving through a small rural town yesterday and noticed that 15 buildings had "For Sale" signs but nobody wants to buy them. That is an issue we must also recognise because if a person bought that place and decided to turn it into something, he or she might go inside to find that the building was probably built more than 100 years ago. The walls are all three feet wide and the rooms are the size of wardrobes. He or she would probably end up having to toss it and start again. That is the dilemma in which people who own these properties find themselves.

Much of the pressure seems to come from local authorities for people to sell the property to a developer who will do something with it that can make a difference. Some of them sit on very small plots of ground and some sit on large plots with large gardens. There are also opportunities to build and do something with the back buildings behind them. There are, therefore, opportunities.

All this is down to creating the correct investment environment for people to be able to do that. I know the Minister recognises and understands that is really one of the key things we need to do here. Yes, it is about getting new footpaths and new lighting and all those things done, but it is also about being able to unlock them in order that, as I say, the people who own these liabilities can in many cases turn them into assets. That is a challenge. Much of what is in this plan is excellent and very good. We need, however, to put some kind of structure in place to assist people and give them that little bit of seed capital or grant aid or something so they can unlock that and turn it into something that will be an asset for the future.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

I welcome the town centre first policy and the measures that are being taken on this.

It is positive. There have been some very good points made so far in this discussion. In particular, Deputy Alan Farrell was absolutely right in pointing out that huge mistakes have been made in planning in the past which have affected our town centres and our villages. All of those re-zonings took place for out-of-town development, retail and also for residential, which is away from services and amenities. This meant that the particular landowners saw a windfall in their land, with prices increasing hugely. Those re-zonings, which were against the advice of planners, such as matrix and leapfrog zonings etc., have been hugely damaging for urban centres and town centres. They have led not only to car dependency, but to dereliction and vacancy in town centres. In recent years, this has been on a very large scale. We have had many of those poor zonings. It is important to say that, because town centre initiatives are important. It is also important that we learn from the mistakes that have been made so they do not happen again in the future.

In the heatwave in Chicago in 1995 which killed more than 700 people, the power systems were caused to melt. The common denominator that was found about the areas with the highest death tolls was that these were areas where people were isolated. It was found that people who were living in areas with good public amenities, good public spaces around them and good community organisations fared the best, not surprisingly, both in survival and in health outcomes. Of course, we know that is the case. Bad planning creates isolation, breaks down communities, breaks down access to good public spaces and amenities and people become car dependent. Not only does that enrich the individual landowners who lobby for that, it also has real impacts on people's lives. Of course, there is also a huge environmental and climate cost.

Between 2002 and 2006, when a huge amount of building was taking place in the country during the Celtic tiger boom, only 4% of the growth in the Irish population took place in the five main cities, combined. All the rest was outside of them. Much of it was scattered deep into rural areas. The population of an entire city was built in rural Ireland around those years. While we saw Ireland’s energy consumption increasing from 1990 to 2007 by 83%, transport energy use increased by 181%. That overwhelmingly happened because of those bad planning policies, because of an increase in car dependency and because of all of the problems that go with that.

Of course, people have to live in the countryside and in rural areas as well and that needs to be supported. I remember a time some years ago when I was campaigning in a by-election in Meath. I spent a Saturday afternoon knocking on doors in what was originally a rural area. It was only at the end of the afternoon of knocking on doors that I met a farmer who was working on the land. Pretty much everyone else who I met was in ribbon developments. Most of them had moved out of Dublin. I will not name the area. There was no sense of community. Many people were living in isolation, with gates, security etc. I could see how the community had broken down. Of course, we need to support people who are living in rural areas, in clusters and in villages, as well as all the supports that go with that. There is huge value in that.

Dereliction and vacancy have been caused by the poor planning policies of recent years. It is worth looking at what has happened. Between 1991 and 2006, the number of households increased by 440,000, but the number of housing units in that time increased by 763,000 units. Some of those are holiday homes, but many were developments in the wrong locations. They were fuelled by tax incentives. Ironically, the section 23 tax incentive was originally brought in to combat urban decay and to promote urban renewal in areas where regeneration was needed. However, those tax incentives were then rolled out to area after area around the country. They fuelled speculative developments, including an oversupply of housing in some areas where it was not needed. It also fuelled an oversupply of housing in areas where there were not good amenities, public transport etc. That is one of the factors that led to the level of vacancy that we now have, as well as the level of vacancy recorded in the 2011 census. In fact, some 230,000 housing units were empty when we do not include holiday homes. That number decreased somewhat by the 2016 census. Hopefully, it has decreased a bit since then as well. However, we know from the Geodirectory.ie report in the fourth quarter of 2020 that there were 92,000 vacant addresses. That figure does not include homes that do not accept postage. It does not include apartments. It does not count separately buildings of fewer than five apartments. Therefore, it is more than that figure. We also know from figures in the Geodirectory.ie report from the second quarter of 2021 that, in addition to those vacant homes, there were more than 22,000 derelict homes and almost 30,000 vacant commercial buildings that could have been used for housing.

Part of the reason for this vacancy was the overuse of section 23 tax reliefs. It is important that any measures the Government takes now are well-designed and well-targeted so they do not have unintended consequences. Too often policies, and particularly those in housing, which to be fair were well meaning, have had poor outcomes. One need look no further than the devastation caused in some communities by the surrender grants, which were brought in in the early 1980s. They were designed to free-up social housing, but they had a devastating impact on those community structures by often giving the community leaders a financial incentive to leave. This often then resulted in a collapse in community leadership and organisation. It has taken some time to rebuild that.

It is also worth noting the ground floor vacancy rates in towns, as well as the good work that has been done by the Heritage Council on that, which has shown vacancy rates on ground floors. These figures are as high as 28% in our towns. Much of that has been driven by those same tax incentives, as well as those same bad land re-zoning policies, which have seen out-of-town retail.

The best kind of larger retail developments, and I think we are all familiar with this, that have happened the last 20 years are those that are integrated into town centres, into the main streets and that serve as an extension of those. Yes, these can be more difficult in terms of planning. When people have an easier, green-field, out-of-town, car-dependent option, they will go for that. That is why good planning around this is so important. We know that the most sustainable buildings are existing buildings and that 50 tonnes of carbon emissions generally are generated in building new homes. This is compared with 15 tonnes to refurbish existing homes. There is environmental damage from construction waste and demolition waste. That is why it is important to re-use existing buildings and to enhance our town centres.

The Government should introduce a tax on vacancy and on vacant buildings straight away. The Government should be bringing in compulsory sales orders so local authorities, that do not have the resources, time or finances to go through compulsory purchase orders, can put in a compulsory sales order, like what is done in Scotland. This will get buildings that are falling into decay back into use as quickly as possible. The Government should introduce straightaway compulsory rental orders, so that people who have empty residential or commercial properties that are not being rented out can be forced to rent them.

In my constituency, which is in a new area that was developed over the last ten to 20 years, more than half of the commercial retail units are still empty. I suspect that the commercial rates that the local authority should be levying on those vacant units are not being levied. I am awaiting further information on that.

Deputy Paul McAuliffe

Town centre first is yet another tool with which the Government can tackle the housing crisis. It aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into town centres. People have reconnected with their communities throughout the pandemic, underlining the importance of high-quality public streets, parks and other amenities in towns that provide space for communities to socialise and recreate. Local authorities have been provided with a number of powers and measures to deal with the issue of derelict properties, in both larger urban areas and smaller rural towns and villages.

Town centre first contains 33 unique recommendations and actions that will give our towns the tools and resources they need to become more viable and attractive places in which to live, work, visit and run a business. The policy is underpinned by a multimillion euro investment spread across major Government schemes such as the RRDF, the URDF, the Croí Cónaithe towns fund and the town and village renewal scheme. In particular, I welcome that for the first time, designated towns will get their own dedicated town regeneration officer, who will be crucial in driving the development of the town.

As part of the initiative, each local authority will be provided with €100,000 to support the development of a unique vision for the town, which will also outline specific interventions required to deliver this vision. Each local authority has been provided with guidance as regards the contents of the plans, which aligns with the details outlined in town centre first. The town centre first plans should be developed collaboratively with local town teams involving community and business, as well as public and private stakeholders. The involvement of various stakeholders is welcome, each bringing different skills and local knowledge to the table. This plan will have to be completed within 18 months.

The URDF has approved €410 million in funding for projects in towns. These projects will be completed over the next few years and will make a fundamental difference to the localities receiving that investment. A funding call for new projects to local authorities will be made in summer 2022 and will be aimed specifically at town centre first as one of its key objectives.

Of course, this is not the only measure the Government is taking. Housing for All’s forthcoming Croí Cónaithe fund will be aimed at servicing sites for new homes in regional towns and villages and supporting the refurbishment of vacant houses. Public infrastructure agencies such as Irish Water and local communities will work to provide serviced sites for housing. This will help attract people to build their own homes and live in small towns and villages.

In my own constituency of Dublin North-West, and in particular in the villages of Finglas and Glasnevin, the level of dereliction and vacancy is quite high. Policies such as these will make a difference to places like Finglas and Glasnevin, making them vibrant and busy locations once again. I welcome the announcement of the pilot towns in December and look forward to additional towns coming under this policy in future years.

Deputy Alan Dillon

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for facilitating the debate. Towns and communities face significant challenges and opportunities that require a co-ordinated and comprehensive response, and I certainly welcome this new policy initiative. One important element of town centre first is that it will facilitate a response by towns of all sizes in order that their streetscapes can function as the sustainable and vibrant heart of the communities they serve.

Killala, in the north of County Mayo, is a place that is full of history, having played an important role during the rebellion of 1798, and it now serves as one of the many jewels on the Wild Atlantic Way. I was delighted, therefore, to see that the town was selected under the town centre first initiative, announced in December of last year. Killala will be provided with €100,000 to support the development of its unique master plan to map out its future developments. My colleague Councillor Jarlath Munnelly played a key role in banging the drum on this issue for his local community. I am excited to see the results of the master plan and I hope it will serve as a template for tackling dereliction and revitalising our town centres. The master plans will allow for making towns more attractive places in which to live, work, socialise and run a business. I very much hope that in the coming years, they will result in many town centres where the dark shadows of dereliction are but a memory and where the sounds of the hustle and bustle are prevalent after people come back to live at the heart of our town centres.

I suggest that the initiative be extended for 2022, with further towns added. For instance, it is very important to build on the progress of the town centre living initiative, in which Ballinrobe was a pilot town. Councillor Michael Burke regularly highlights opportunities the town presents. Ballyhaunis is another prime candidate where a master plan is required to address concerns and to capitalise on opportunities in a more co-ordinated manner. Ballyhaunis Chamber of Commerce and Councillor John Cribbin have many ideas for the locality and will be more than willing to share them with the Department.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

It is good that we are discussing this issue given that, as the document states, our towns and villages are vital economic, social and cultural assets. They provide us with a sense of space and of belonging. That is what the document says and nobody would deny that. Centrally, they are a home to businesses and to people living in them, and it is not just in rural Ireland that these towns and villages are important. Interestingly, the map contained in the document shows town centres with populations of more than 20,000, and there are many such towns in this city, some of which do not even have a proper town centre. For instance, my area, Cherry Orchard, has no town centre or village - nothing. There is a need, therefore, to address the same problems where they exist in cities that are identified here as needing this type of targeted approach.

I have worked on local area plans, including the plan for Cherry Orchard, with Dublin City Council and council colleagues. Likewise, a plan has been developed for the Bluebell area, where I live at the moment. It will soon be surrounded by apartment buildings and office blocks but they are all turning their backs on the town. It is a similar issue to that which exists in rural Ireland, where buildings are being built that force people to look away from the centre. That is why this plan is vital to turn back the clock. Nobody is suggesting that retail parks, at this stage, do not have a role, but it is sad to walk through different towns and villages and see the dereliction. A response is vital, and I do not think there is any opposition from any party to investing in and ensuring our towns and villages will develop.

Some Gaeltacht areas may not have specific town centres, in a similar way to Cherry Orchard, and there may be ribbon development. This is identified in Gaeltacht areas, in particular, where there is a pattern of location. There may not be a town centre in the sense that most people would understand, where there is a crossroads in the middle of one area. Often, it is a case of ribbon development, which many people do not want. We need to ensure we will not leave out Gaeltacht areas purely because some of the villages do not have traditional town centres.

In the context of the housing crisis, the document identifies that it should not be a case of providing housing at any cost. There are opportunities where there is dereliction and where there has been a move away from living over the shop. There have been initiatives by governments over the years to encourage people to live over shops. My party colleague Deputy Martin Kenny earlier described some of the problems. Some of the buildings are dilapidated, having been derelict for so long, and a great deal of investment will be required. Nevertheless, we do not necessarily want the likes of a two- or three-storey townhouse, for example, to be replaced with a five- or ten-storey building in a small village. There is a housing need, but it should not be housing at all costs. It should be appropriate housing in appropriate locations. If we address the dereliction issue with appropriate housing for town and village living, we can take the pressure off some of the urban areas.

The pandemic has shown us the value of working from home and the potential of the hubs that have been developed and are continuing to be developed, whereby people do not need to endure endless commutes to the city. This can breathe new life into towns that were abandoned because people had to sit in their cars and drive to Dublin or some other city for work.

Now we need to encourage people, if they can, to work from home or work as locally as they can remotely. That would breathe life into the local butchers, the local shop, local cafés and other local businesses. They would be staying at home and could ply their trade and spend their money and keep it locally. That would help us in this city because the pressure would be taken off for endless development of large apartment blocks in places where they may not be appropriate. There is a need for a considerable amount of development. This will not solve all of the housing needs of the city. In my area, there is a plan for 70,000 houses or apartments next to us. We do not have a problem with that because it is an area that is in dire need of housing but it needs to be planned properly.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

I wish to share time with Deputies Paul Murphy and Barry.

It is laudable to launch a policy referring to town centres first to address the often unacceptable levels of dereliction and neglect that many of our town centres have suffered from. The town of Dún Laoghaire is the capital of my local authority area. I remember as a teenager that it was a vibrant, buzzing and dynamic town. For decades it has been commonly been referred to, perhaps a little unfairly, as a ghost town compared to what it used to be. That is a tragedy for a town such as Dún Laoghaire, which has an absolute jewel in Dún Laoghaire Harbour. When it was built, it was the biggest human-built harbour in the world. Dún Laoghaire was the location of the first suburban railway in the world. It overlooks Dublin Bay, which was first surveyed by the captain of HMS Bounty, from the famous "Mutiny on the Bounty". The town has an amazing heritage and history, both literary and cultural, but we have rampant dereliction in both the private and public sectors. I will name a few of the derelict sites. Those in public control include Carlisle Pier, from which much of the Irish Diaspora departed. It is effectively derelict and is being used as a car park. The Stena terminal building has been derelict for the best part of a decade. The Carnegie Library in Dún Laoghaire has been empty for years. I could mention many more sites such as the old Kelly's Hotel building, the old wash house, the former post office, the further education building on Eblana Avenue and the harbour cottages in Dún Laoghaire Harbour which used to house people. I will not go through the full list.

I had a transition year student in with me the other week. First, she discovered, interestingly, that they have rent controls in Paris, which is something the Government could learn about. As another one of her jobs while she was with me for a week, she spent an hour going up the main street in Dún Laoghaire identifying derelict buildings. In one hour, she identified 33 derelict buildings. That is one every 30 seconds going up Dún Laoghaire main street, just left there to rot. There has been chronic failure. This has been talked about for decades but nothing was done about it. What I worry about is that the Government makes a very laudable plan, ticks all the right boxes, but will anything happen? How many plans have we had of this sort? We have had Rebuilding Ireland and Housing for All. The Children First plan also included the word "first". We have had lots of plans, but are they delivered upon?

It particularly worries me that much of what we are doing in reality belies the plan to renovate, refurbish and revitalise our towns. For example, if Dún Laoghaire town is to be vibrant, it needs decent public transport links. Most of the local public transport bus routes in Dún Laoghaire have been privatised and are now run by Go-Ahead Ireland. I get calls constantly from constituents trying to get to the hospital or to the town stating that the buses have not turned up. Privatisation has been a disaster in terms of public transport links into the capital. Frankly, I doubt there is any real willingness in the Government to address that.

We have had more plans for Dún Laoghaire Harbour than I care to remember. Waves of consultants who have been paid significant amounts of money have totally disregarded the views of the local public, who know exactly what needs to be done in Dún Laoghaire Harbour and Dún Laoghaire. The consultants completely ignore them. They get paid a fortune. They make crazy plans, which, in any event, never come to pass.

I think of some of the derelict sites, such as the old CBS site on Eblana Avenue. We campaigned for years for affordable and public housing on the site on the basis that it would revitalise a central site in Dún Laoghaire. What actually happened was that the site was given to Bartra for 200 co-living apartments, which are, essentially, the modern tenements of the 21st century, rooms that have shared facilities and are only the size of a disability parking space.

It is no good unless we are serious about this. We need to deal with the dereliction by taking over public or private properties and by saying that if there is not a good reason for something to be left derelict for more than six months, we will take it over and provide the resources for it to be refurbished for housing, community amenities, heritage purposes or whatever. Give us the public transport, give us the public housing in our localities, and give funding to the local authority and the local community to deliver on the refurbishment and revitalisation. Then we might have a chance.

Deputy Paul Murphy

A crucial part of developing our town centres is making sure that people feel safe to use them. On Saturday, over 50 people gathered in Tallaght for a street meeting called by community activists in Watergate Park after a series of attacks took place there. People were united in the idea that our parks cannot be a place where people are scared to go. They have to be a safe space, a space for public enjoyment.

We were also united in a clear demand on the local authority for action and on the Government to provide funding for that action - some simple asks to make our parks safer. We need proper lighting in the park so that people feel comfortable to be in there when it is dark. We need investment in facilities to encourage people to use the park - park benches, exercise machines, etc. We need the local authority to help to organise pro-social activities in the park - yoga, exercises, etc. - and we need park rangers to give people a much greater sense of security. We also need to work with teenagers to develop a space for them to hang out and for them to have a stake in the park. The campaign is absolutely determined to keep going to put pressure on the local authority to achieve these asks.

Deputy Mick Barry

I urge people across the country to speak out about the development in their own towns and villages. I encourage the people in Blarney and Tower in County Cork to speak out about their community and the facilities they need. At present, a large number - I suspect a majority - of households in that community have to travel quite some distance to do their weekly shop. Many people travel to Ballincollig. Many people travel to Blackpool. Many people feel that there are no supermarket facilities in their communities which operate at affordable prices. They go to Ballincollig and Blackpool, where the prices are too high in any case but maybe not as expensive as in Blarney and Tower. It is inconvenient for people, and not good from the point of view of the climate, that they are forced to get in their car and drive miles in and miles out every week to do a shop.

They want to see supermarket facilities in their own community. For obvious reasons, there is no question that tourism is important for Blarney, but it cannot rule to the exclusion of facilities there that people living in other communities of a similar size enjoy and expect to have.

I am not going to comment on the details of the case, but it is a known fact now that the owners of Blarney Castle are going to take a High Court action against a development that includes a hotel, some residences and a supermarket in the Blarney area, and a second case against a primary care centre. I will not drill down into that here, but as this plays out in the coming weeks and months, it is very important that the voices that are heard are not merely the proposers of the new developments and the owners of Blarney Castle who are in opposition to them but the ordinary people who live and are rearing their families in the communities of Blarney and Tower. They must speak out and say what they want. I have no doubt that one of the things they will say they want is supermarket facilities at something approaching affordable prices.

An Ceann Comhairle

Tá an Teachta Ó Cathasaigh ag roinnt a chuid ama leis an Teachta Calleary.

Deputy Marc Ó Cathasaigh

Before I begin to talk about the town centre first policy, I wish to acknowledge the members of the Ukrainian community that are outside the gates today. Trying to relate the personal stories of the people at the gates to the large scale of the war on Europe is unthinkable. It does not touch on this debate but I wanted to use the opportunity to refer to them.

I thank the Minister of State and congratulate him on this policy. I have read it in detail, and it would have been nice to hear those details referred to in some way, shape or form in the previous contributions. I would describe this as mission critical to the work of the Government. I worked closely with the likes of Mark Dearey, whose role I acknowledge, and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, who was instrumental in this policy being brought through by the Government. Waterford is sometimes described as a microcosm of Ireland in that we have Ireland's oldest urban centre but we also have smaller towns and villages and a very rural environment. This policy has significant potential, in particular in places like Cappoquin, which was previously involved in the town centre renewal scheme and Lismore, more or less right beside it, which has a significant vacancy rate on an outstandingly beautiful main street and in my home town of Tramore, above-the-shop living is not fully utilised.

I also acknowledge the role of the Heritage Council and the collaborative town centre health check model that has been built into the town centre first model. The town centre health checks demonstrate that our urban spaces are among the least active in Europe. The economic burden of vacancy is felt very heavily in towns and contributes to issues such as sprawl and commuting, as described by Deputy Barry. I very much commend the work of the programme co-ordinator, Alison Harvey who notes: "Irish town centres have a rich critical mass of heritage assets with hundreds of years of living history in our buildings, streets, parks and squares." I see today that ESPON EGTC has selected the collaborative town centre health check programme as best practice case study in Europe.

The town centre first policy is very good. There are 33 unique actions which will give towns the tools and resources they need to become more viable and attractive places to live, work, visit and run a business. We are talking about a multibillion euro investment, which is a very serious level of investment, that is backing this up, not alone through the TCF programme but also through policies such as Housing for All and Our Rural Future. We are seeing the RRDF, URDF, in certain cases, the Croí Cónaithe fund, the town and village renewal scheme I mentioned earlier and, crucially for me, through the town centre officers and in particular the town teams. What we are talking about is a bottom-up development. We are going to build capacity and skills within communities to allow people to make decisions about their own towns and villages. These are the people who know their towns and villages best and they are the people most invested in them and if we upskill them and build capacity within communities that can only lead to good.

I find it exciting to see the level of policy coherence now evident, between the likes of town centre first, Our Rural Future and Housing for All. We are drawing different strands and different Departments together in a real and meaningful way that will unlock significant potential across the country and help us with the balanced rural development piece, which is so important for places like Dublin. I acknowledge what Deputy Ó Snodaigh said, we also need to build our urban towns and villages. That is very important as well.

I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for selecting me for a Topical Issue matter later when I will deal with sustainable development goals in more detail. In talking about policy cohesion I want to reference the excellent sustainable development goals toolkit for business, which was developed by Chambers Ireland. As well as town centre first, it gives the kind of first principles-led, bottom-up approach whereby we can begin to build in the sustainable development goals or other principles into policies in a coherent way that will help to draw things together and maximise the benefits.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to debate the issue today. I very much commend the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, on the work he has done on what is an excellent policy. I look forward to him holding his feet to the fire to have it implemented over the remaining time of the Government.

Deputy Dara Calleary

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this policy. I also welcome the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and that of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, on the co-ordination and cohesion referred to by Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. That is all very fine though at ministerial level, the difficulty is when it gets down to the ground. The ambition the Government and this House may have for town centre renewal and rural renewal is not being met on the ground.

Deputy Ó Cathasaigh can probably speak to this, but I was intrigued by the recent RTÉ "Prime Time" report about what is happening in Waterford city and the very proactive and aggressive way the local authority is chasing CPOs. That is in contrast to most local authorities, which seem quite lazy and intimidated by law and by lawyers. I will return to the issue later. I saw figures indicating that Waterford City Council acquired 45 properties that were empty or derelict through CPO, got funding from the Department and put them into housing. That is the kind of proactivity we need to see from every local authority, not the usual story about there being a CPO and the council is trying to find the owner or there is a derelict property and the council does not know where the owner is, it does not have any details and it does not want to go to court. We need far more ambition and dare I say, aggression, from local authorities around the country taking on CPOs. It would be worth the Minister of State's while to encapsulate what is going on in Waterford and to set targets for it to be repeated right across the country.

We need this policy. Following a survey, the Northern and Western Regional Assembly has concluded that there are nearly 45,000 empty properties in the west, north west and Border areas. That is an extraordinary figure. The report uses such language as: "The region faces 'catastrophic' economic and population decline unless the trend is reversed." It is nonsense to sit on an asset of 45,000 empty properties while we have a housing and homelessness crisis in the country and given the opportunities we saw in the past two years for remote working and relocating to rural areas. We have all of these national policies and the recent supports announced by the Minister for Housing, Heritage and Local Government yet we need to see them being implemented on the ground. Local authorities need to stop diagnosing the problem but refusing to treat it. As the old phrase goes, there is no sense in having a dog unless he barks or even bites. Local authorities are good at barking about dereliction, but they are not very good at doing much about it, even with the powers they have.

I welcome the notion of a town regeneration officer but what backup and support will they have? One person on his or her own cannot do that. In many communities there is a lack of knowledge and opposition and a downright refusal on the part of the owners of derelict properties.

Town teams are doing some very good work around the country but, again, what kind of backup and support is there?

One of the worst things done by the 2011 to 2016 Government was the abolition of town councils. There is no sense in us talking about town centre first unless we commit to restoring town councils and the element of democracy that went around that. That set towns back enormously. Faced with international decline, with things like online trading, the fact that we in this country have taken away that element of local democracy has deprived our towns of something very important.

It should be town centre first, but not at the cost of the communities around them either. Towns, in particular rural and provincial towns, depend on a healthy community around them and that is the basis on which they work. A healthy town needs a healthy community. I am all for the town centre but I am not going to say town centre first at the cost of rural communities, at the cost of rural families not being able to plan to live in their own rural areas, or at the cost of farm families not being able to live on their farm but being forced to commute 40-mile return trips to attend to their farms and farm animals, because they have to live in the town given the current planning guidelines. Town centre first, but communities first too. Healthy town centres need a healthy community around them. Until we recognise that part, the Minister of State is going to have a very difficult few months ahead of him in terms of the development plans that are coming at him. These are development plans that have the endorsement of locally elected representatives but are then being overturned by unelected people. I am all for town centres, and we have a huge amount of work to do in that regard, but not at the cost of rural communities.

There is huge potential around some of the recent plans announced for the pathfinder towns. I am thrilled to see Killala in County Mayo chosen. The Minister of State was down there with us during the summer, although he did not get a chance to go into the town. There is massive potential in that town, which has a high level of dereliction for such a small town. A focused, cross-Department investment programme can transform its fortunes and can give homes to families who want to live in that area, homes that are already there but are vacant and, in some cases, derelict. It can regenerate the town, given the fine history, the ecclesiastical history, the history of the French-Irish tradition and the use of Killala Bay, Killala Port and Killala Quay around it. All of those together, with people actively and proactively working together, can deliver.

We want to do it in this House and the Minister of State wants to do it in his Department, but it is about getting that into the work programme of our local authorities and getting them to deliver on this and provide whatever supports and powers are needed. As we have seen in Waterford, the powers are there if they want to use them, and I want to re-emphasise that point.

There is a continuing need for ongoing infrastructural investment. To get people to our town centres, we need proper public transport. Things like active travel are working but, once again, I want to use the opportunity to say that for towns like Claremorris in east Mayo, Ballina and Sligo, it would be wonderful if we had rail connections to get people to them along the western rail corridor. We need a proper bus service and a proper public transport service to keep populations moving between towns and within towns. Within our small towns around the country, yes, we encourage living and we are encouraging people to come back into them, but we are not providing public transport that is suitable to towns. We have transport in our cities but in our towns there needs to be a far more proactive local transport policy so people do not need a car to get in and out of local towns and local shopping centres.

It is time to be proactive around how we support local independent retailers. We cannot put up the white flag in the face of online trading. We need to take measures such as taxation measures, investment measures and rates support measures to give local traders the upper hand. The notion of state aid rules meaning we do not defend independent local and rural traders from the might of the major multinationals is wrong. That is not what state aid rules were for. Let us proactively support our town centres by proactively supporting town centre retailers, proactively supporting town centre democracy and proactively supporting town centre transport, but not at the cost of communities that make the town centre the healthy place it needs to be.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

The ongoing failure to tackle effectively the issue of derelict properties and vacant properties in our town centres and across the State is unacceptable when we have a housing crisis. Let me talk about north Donegal. It is not that long ago that people could have rented a family home in the towns of north Donegal for €600 per month but now they would be lucky if they got it for less than €1,100 or €1,200 a month, and that happened within a very short period of time. This is due to the policy of not building public housing for many years, forcing families into the private sector, as well as the unavailability of properties in the private sector. A key issue is the failure to go proactively after buildings that are derelict or vacant to turn them into housing or a resource for the community.

What we see in town centres in the north of Donegal are great community activists. They are in every single town and every single community. They are salt of the earth people but they are being let down by the failure of local authorities to work to turn derelict properties into viable resources. This is repugnant at a time when we have a profound housing crisis but, of course, in north Donegal, when we add the mica crisis and the houses that are crumbling around families, we have a perfect storm. Now, we are going to have to re-house families for a year or a year and a half while they are waiting for their homes to be rebuilt. They are now looking for the scarce resource of a private rental property to live in while their homes are being rebuilt at a time where there just are not any. If the Minister of State talks to Threshold or the Simon Community, he will know they cannot secure a house to rent in north Donegal. If somebody is on the housing assistance payment and is waiting to receive a council house or a public house, and they are told that the landlord is going to sell the property in six months, and it is all perfectly legal and proper notice has been given, that person cannot secure a home. There are good hard-working people who present and say they are going to be homeless soon or are homeless.

This is the scale of the crisis but I have not seen in recent years the urgency and the awareness to deal with that. People ask how we can have such a profound housing crisis, how we can have a scenario where rents are unattainable for working families, not just in the cities but even in places like Donegal, yet we allow so many properties and so many buildings to lie derelict. There is the issue of the failure to deploy these buildings to address the housing crisis but there is also the failure in letting down community activists.

For example, we praise Tidy Towns volunteers up and down the country regarding how they paint all the buildings that are lying empty and the fences and the walls, and how they restore civic pride in our communities, yet we allow a situation where there are derelict buildings. I will not pick out individual towns as that would be unfair but there are beautiful towns in north Donegal where people come in from the outside and ask what is going on. They ask why there are so many buildings that are derelict, lying empty or unused. The powers that be - the legal infrastructure, the local authorities and the Government of the land – have failed to put in place the environment where this is addressed. They have let down the community activists, let down our volunteers in the community and, most serious of all, failed families.

I take this opportunity to say very clearly to the Minister of State that this is unacceptable in a profound housing crisis where young people are leaving this country not because they do not have work, as was the case in the past in places like Donegal, but because they cannot afford to put a roof over their heads. Now, they cannot afford the rent. While all of that is happening, there are a huge number of empty, derelict or vacant properties that are not utilised by the State. It has to change and I hope this debate leads to that.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick is sharing time with Deputy Seán Canney.

Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick

Since I was first elected to this House, one of the issues that I have constantly raised is that of town centre regeneration, in particular the regeneration of centres in towns like Dundalk and Drogheda.

Anybody travelling through any town in Ireland today is sure to find a vast number of vacant properties. Indeed, the main street in my home town of Dundalk, Clanbrassil Street, has vacant shop units and, overhead, many vacant living spaces. Everyone knows that we are in the middle of a housing crisis. Time and again I have asked why more is not being done to regenerate the vacant properties in towns such as Dundalk and Drogheda and, not only that, to regenerate the living quarters that are often over the retail units in the main trading places.

On mainland Europe, it is quite common to see town centre properties used for living accommodation, particularly the overhead living quarters. In Dundalk there is a major problem among multinational companies trying to recruit workers because there is no suitable accommodation. Nothing is available and this is making it increasingly difficult to attract workers to the town. I have spoken to a number of these employers and they all tell me the same story that accommodation is a problem when trying to attract employees to the area. That is why I fully support any initiative that might help. I welcome the town centre first plan and will fully support it as long as it produces the right outcomes. We do not want another talking shop with lots of different people talking and nothing happening on the ground. It is time for action. We need the plan to be successful. Our town centres need new life pumped into them. Towns like Dundalk have great potential. All that is needed is for local people to be given the resources to put measures in place that can regenerate the town centres and, therefore, I am glad the Minister of State said that the one-size-fits-all approach will not work.

What we need is for people to work together locally to identify the areas that need help and to direct resources to where they are badly needed. A lot of work continues to be done in Dundalk in the northern end of the town and we are starting to see results. I have no doubt that the regeneration will transform towns like Dundalk and we can see it happening already in the northern quarter there.

The bottom line is that every town needs a vibrant town centre to act as both a social and economic area. Town centres should be safe places for us to live and to work. If schemes like this succeed we will all be winners with people and businesses in the town centres. When we go on holidays abroad, we all see how vibrant town centres can be at night and during the day. Why can all town centres not be like that? We just need Government support with funding and the support of the local authorities with planning. Then the rest will fall into place. I welcome any initiative that can get real results and transform town centres, including Dundalk and Drogheda.

Dundalk has been lucky in attracting multinational companies. Some years ago I met the managing director of one and asked him why the company opted for Dundalk. He said that there had been a lot of investment in the town centre. He said he had visited the town with his family before they picked their site. They had walked around the town centre and got a feel for the people in the area. They visited the local college, which we were lucky to have, Dundalk Institute of Technology or DKIT, and it was excellent. They looked at the schools, shops and everything else. When he visited the local auctioneers he saw a lot of vacant properties in Dundalk and wondered why the Government did not seem to invest in it. As I said earlier, when visiting Spain or Portugal, for example, the number of people who live over shop units is unreal. If we can get multinational companies to come to places such as Dundalk and Drogheda or the Minister of State's own town of Mullingar, it will be a win-win for everyone.

The Dundalk business improvement district scheme, BIDS, works very closely with the local authority, which, to be fair, injects a lot of money. I mentioned the northern part of Dundalk. I recall how it used to be a doom and gloom area but in recent years a lot of money has been injected into the area. Initiatives such as BIDS have helped to improve the derelict and old buildings and a lot of money has been spent on painting and decorating them. When coming into Dundalk, the Crowne Plaza can be seen and it gives a nice feeling for the area.

I fully support the Minister of State. I have known him for some years. He is a very up-and-coming young politician and I think that he has a good future ahead. It is good to have people like him who have a business perspective. We need help. I mentioned DKIT earlier. The workers and skills it has provided these multinational companies has been unreal. The institute is looking for university status. The Minister, Deputy Harris, is doing his best to help us. We were top of the list for years and then suddenly we just dropped to a lower level. However, a lot of work has been done.

To conclude, there are many vacant properties in Dundalk, Drogheda and other towns. I hope that the Government injects the necessary funds. It is common sense that to make money, money has to be invested. Many multinational companies will come to Dundalk and attract many people with them. Those people will come with families, children and everything else but they have nowhere to live. These shops may not suit young families but single people or married people just starting off could move in. I have full confidence in the Minister of State and I support him.

Deputy Seán Canney

I welcome the publication of the town centre first policy. It brings together many of the existing schemes and supports. It brings the town and village, rural regeneration development scheme and the urban regeneration development scheme together into one document. These schemes have been in place and they have been very effective. When I think of my constituency of Galway East, Athenry, Gort, Loughrea, Tuam, Kinvara and a multitude of small villages have been supported and are being transformed with the infrastructure going into them. However, sadly, when walking the new footpath, people still find themselves looking at boarded up buildings. What do we need to do for that?

Page 15 of the policy refers to Irish Water and an investment of €8.5 billion funding package over the lifetime of the national development plan. The Minister of State needs to take some of that money and fast-forward it to put in municipal treatment plants into these towns and villages that cannot develop. I will be parochial about it and refer to my constituency and places such as Craughwell, Corofin, Abbeyknockmoy, Ardrahan and Labane, which are yearning for houses to be built in an affordable way but cannot do so because they are not allowed build by the local authorities or An Bord Pleanála. There is one small little village where six in-fill houses are to be put into an existing housing estate. When I think of what it would do for that village, but it has been refused by Galway County Council on the basis that it is supplied by a private wastewater treatment plant. Even though it has the capacity and is properly functional, it is not being allowed. The policy is there but the practice on the ground does not make sense.

The policy is missing something, which is how we are going to support people. I am talking about first-time buyers entering the housing market. We are discriminating against first-time buyers who would like to buy a second-hand house and do it up. First, the help to buy scheme is not available to them. That is a major omission if we are trying to regenerate town centres. Then there is the local authority housing scheme, which does not support refurbishment costs to a property and only supports the capital purchase of the property. Again, buying new property is put ahead of buying a property that is vacant. Third, why do we not encourage people by exempting them from planning development levies in town centres and on vacant sites. A pilot scheme could be run for three years to see what the take-up would be. We need to incentivise young people to come into towns and live in them. At the moment we are trying to stop them living in rural areas with daft planning regulations coming down the road. Many people are being refused planning permission in rural areas. Some are being refused planning permission adjacent to the village because they are just outside the speed limit. Crazy stuff is going on. This policy here will not solve it. The planners and local authorities need a talking-to to get things done instead of saying how they cannot be done.

If we are to make this a success, which I hope we will, I point to the fact that the North and West Regional Assembly has done an analysis for the Department and we now have a database of 44,905 vacant properties in the north and west of our country. The target for the number of houses we need to build every year is 33,000. If we were to take this regional assembly area as one example, take on board the analysis that has been done and the information that is there and convert that into a conversion rate of maybe 50% over the next three years, we would deliver 22,000 units in existing sites. We must take this by the scruff of the neck. We must ensure we provide supports for first-time buyers. It is okay to say we should CPO a property, and we should do that if somebody will not sell it, but at the moment people are not interested in buying them because it will cost too much money to do the planning permission to comply with building regulations. We need, therefore, to decide to take a simple approach to this. Let us take the protected structure element out of it. Let us see how we can make this a living space rather than a derelict, boarded-up protected space, as that is what is happening. We seem to have converted ourselves over to thinking that if we protect something we are doing the right thing. We are not. We are actually causing decay and rotting our towns and villages through that.

I am very passionate about this. We have an opportunity here. That is beyond doubt. Everybody talks every week and every day and criticises the Government about housing. I do not criticise the Government about housing as it is going to take time to build it. However, we certainly have real potential here with the derelict sites we have. Let us start converting them. Just think what we are going to save in emissions by using existing structures. I go so far as to say first-time buyers should also be given double the grant from the retrofit to help them fit out these houses so they become living spaces. It is not a pipe dream; it is practical. Coming from a construction background, it really frustrates me when I walk and drive through towns and villages all over the country and can spend my time counting how many places are boarded up with a bit of nice bright paint on the plywood. It should shame us all that we are leaving it like that.

An Ceann Comhairle

Words of wisdom from Deputy Canney. Deputies Leddin and Bruton are next.

Deputy Brian Leddin

I thank the Minister of State and his team for the work they have done to develop town centre first. It is a very good policy and is going to be critical in driving development across Ireland for many decades to come. It is going to be a very positive and sustainable development. I am minded to think of Éamon de Valera's words from 1943 in his famous speech, the "comely maidens dancing at the crossroads" speech. It was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Gaelic League and de Valera expressed in the speech a vision of Ireland. I will not read from it in depth but will take a bit from it. De Valera foresaw: "a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age." This romantic and idealised vision, probably infused with a zeal of nationalism as Ireland was coming out of its struggle for independence, was a destructive vision. It informed thinking and policy for the next half-century or more. Perhaps it still does. I would like to think that with this policy we are putting to bed that vision of a poor, agrarian and isolationist Ireland. This policy represents a very positive, strong and progressive vision for the Ireland of the future.

I thought of de Valera's "comely maidens dancing at the crossroads" but what has actually happened in this country might be described in Frank McDonald and James Nix's book Chaos at the Crossroads. It was written 15 years ago during the height of the Celtic tiger when we were building ghost estates all over the country and one-off houses here, there and everywhere. I encourage everybody to read it. Chaos at the Crossroads described the destructive planning policies of the previous half-century that led to the decline and dereliction of towns and villages and the closure of post offices, schools, banks, Garda stations and pubs - you name it. Towns and villages all over the country went into serious decline. This policy is the way to turn that around and it is not happening before time.

The economic impact of poor planning and the vision that was pursued for such a long time was matched by a significant social impact. We exported our young people. We sent them to all corners of the world. There was a brain drain in Ireland like in no other country in the developed world. It led to a conservatism, a resistance to change and a closed-mindedness in rural Ireland that has not served us well. Ultimately, it drove a race to the bottom. It led to the lopsided development of the country whereby the east coast took primacy. The unwritten "All roads lead to Dublin" policy that Dublin must be a city of scale and everywhere else was a regional backwater is informed by that flawed vision. That thinking still exists and we must tackle it head on. Though our national planning framework is good and speaks about compact growth it needs to be reviewed. We need to be serious about balanced regional development. I refer to the idea our capital city will grow by 30% within the next two decades, despite how large it already is. Even if the growth of the regional cities is much faster because they are coming from so far behind, we are still going to be left with that lopsided development.

The policies of the past have led to serious costs in servicing rural Ireland. We have the longest road network in Europe per capita. We cannot provide public transport. My colleague Deputy Bruton knows much about broadband and how difficult and expensive it is to roll out due to the nature of our settlements and our development. The cost of our sewage, electricity and water networks and the difficulty in providing these services are linked to the poor planning and vision of the past.

This policy represents hope we will change things and rebalance Ireland. There are positive post-pandemic indications that remote working is being embraced. We are seeing people moving back to rural Ireland and that is absolutely positive. We must encourage them to move into towns and villages. We must make towns and villages attractive places to live and places where young people and young families will want to live. That is our fundamental challenge. The role of Government is to manage that challenge as best it can and this policy is a very good start. We can reverse the vicious cycle of decline and turn it into a virtuous cycle of prosperity.

How much time do I have, a Cheann Comhairle?

An Ceann Comhairle

It is six and a half minutes each.

Deputy Brian Leddin

Okay. I need to let Deputy Bruton take over.

I commend this policy. We must ensure we help rural areas grow and prosper by ensuring the vast majority of development happens within the existing urban footprint of our rural areas. Our towns can be the engines of our rural economy and the centres of a rural society that is strong, integrated and resilient.

Deputy Richard Bruton

My few comments will follow on from those of Deputy Leddin without my having planned it. Huge opportunities will arise for rural Ireland and especially our towns and villages if we embrace wholeheartedly the infrastructures of the future. There is a danger that the way we think about rural Ireland is about looking backwards at some of the infrastructure that served us well in the past.

However, the infrastructure of the future is the national broadband plan with its highways of fast communications; renewable energy, which will transform this country and in which respect we have a unique opportunity; and the retrofitting programme, comprising an investment of €8 billion that focuses particularly on rural Ireland where the greatest problems with poor housing infrastructure exist. Between these, we are discussing a €40 billion investment that is coming down the tracks and will focus largely on rural Ireland. How do we ensure we take maximum advantage of this? Members of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party have been doing intensive work, which I believe the Minister of State knows about. In a document, we have made 26 practical suggestions on how we can enliven the growth of our towns and villages and bring vacant properties back into use.

What is remarkable in the work that has been done is the considerable variation across counties in the uptake of opportunities offered by some of the existing programmes, for example, the various renewal and lease programmes for tackling vacancies. The strongest performing county has addressed 13% of its vacant units and brought them back into use while many counties at the bottom of the league have addressed less than 1%. Counties have used the incentives differently, so it is important we develop best practice. The same is true of the use of the Derelict Sites Act, compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, and programmes like the town and village renewal scheme and the rural development fund. These programmes are significant. In Munster and Connacht alone, they are funding nearly 1,000 projects worth nearly €300 million.

In what the Government is doing today, I welcome the concept of a partnership that is coherent at local level and will add value to the diverse supports for community initiatives. It is remarkable. I have listed off many of the schemes – sustainable energy communities, active travel, renewal and lease, the Derelict Sites Act, CPOs, business improvement districts, sports capital grants, the community enhancement programme, the historic structure fund and the living city initiative. I could go on and on about the schemes, but what is missing is the glue that pulls them together into a coherent plan. It is important we address this point.

We have allocated €100,000 to 26 towns, one for every county. I will illustrate the differences. In Mayo, Killala is a town with 600 people. In Donegal, Buncrana has 7,000 people. The question will automatically arise as to how the selection of these towns for master planning will influence the allocation of resources. It would be a terrible shame if a dead hand was placed on the valuable community initiatives that are being undertaken in all the other towns and villages while we wait for this better model and its tools to come forward. If it is not impertinent to do so, I advocate that we add a small premium of 5% or 10% to the grants under the current schemes concerned with town and village renewal. In this way, those who take on this work would be rewarded without placing a dead hand on current initiatives.

I welcome the expansion of the town health check but there should be a threshold test before towns or villages are included in it. We cannot just produce plans to sit on shelves. There has to be clear intent from any town that qualifies for the health check so that we genuinely build momentum.

Something is missing. Where is the public service in this? In Scotland where this approach was pioneered, there was a national directive to every public body that it had to focus on town centres. In reviewing its plans, the HSE or any other body would, as a principle, consider town centres first in an attempt to revive them. That needs to be brought into the mix here.

I cannot sit down without making a strong appeal to the Minister of State to consider the new towns that are developing on the fringes of our cities. I represent some of them. Generally, they have crude retail services, underdeveloped education systems – often, they have to wait five years for education or transport – poor childcare and very few sports facilities. The town centre first policy needs to cover these emerging communities and we need to ring-fence funding to allow them to develop. They do not have the natural asset of a strong GAA or soccer club. They must build those from scratch. This must form part of the policy.

The Ceann Comhairle has given me the opportunity to raise a final point. We must open up our publicly funded facilities to enhance communities. This applies to school assets in particular. We must allow them to play a part in developing a campus of activities around the valuable investments we have made in our communities.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy Patricia Ryan is sharing time with colleagues.

Deputy Patricia Ryan

An effort to address the decay that is obvious if you travel through many of the towns and villages in south Kildare and the Portarlington area of Laois is long overdue. Portarlington should be a vibrant town, given its population size and transport links. Unfortunately, through mismanagement by successive governments, little has been done to address the widespread dereliction.

Councils have tools such as the derelict and vacant sites levy as well as the CPO process. For various reasons, though, they do not use them in any meaningful way. Has anyone bothered to challenge the councils as to why they do not use the tools at their disposal? It seems not. I have heard various excuses but it generally boils down to manpower. Councils barely have the resources to do their day-to-day work without worrying about the actions they would like to take, such as addressing dereliction.

This might explain why I recently received a reply from Kildare County Council regarding a representation I made more than six weeks ago. The representation related to a lady who had spent more than six months trying to get on the housing list. The reply read:

It is acknowledged that the response to your enquiry is overdue. This is due to the increased volume of work in the Housing Department, and I regret any inconvenience that this delay may have caused.

This lady is trying to get on the list, and where people do get on Kildare County Council's list, they then have to wait ten years.

A policy like town centre first must be more than just lip service or another fancy announcement. It must be backed up by money. I am sure the situation is the same on other councils, but councillors on Kildare County Council are often told that responses are not available or actions cannot be taken because of a lack of staff or resources. I do not blame the council's management, which has to work with the tools it is given. This policy is not going to succeed if councils are not given the support they need.

Dereliction is a blight on our towns. Towns like Athy, Monasterevin and Rathangan in south Kildare are like the rust belt, with buildings on their main streets that have been crumbling and left to rot for well over 20 years. There must be a carrot and a stick to encourage property owners, but there is not enough of either in this policy.

Deputy Claire Kerrane

I welcome the publication of the town centre first policy. In particular, I welcome its recognition of the fact that one size does not fit all and that we need unique solutions for the unique challenges each and every town faces, given they are all different. I also welcome the idea of tailored plans for towns. It is important for buy-in that there be consultation not only with the town teams, but also with local businesses and residents in towns and villages. There are many wonderful rural development groups, town teams and others that do so much good work in our towns and villages. Last week, Creggs Rural Development in County Galway launched a village plan in conjunction with Galway County Council. That is the level of consultation we need to see, namely, towns and villages creating their own plans with, importantly, the support and backing of their local authorities. In conjunction with the local credit union, the enterprise centre in Ballinasloe does a great deal of work on the development of the town, which is suffering from derelict and vacant properties.

The initial report on the six pilot towns identified that the main issue had to do with complications arising from the ownership of vacant buildings, particularly in town centres. Perhaps older people owned them and, instead of selling them to their local authorities, they intended to leave them to sons or daughters who might not have even been in the country, for example, in England or further afield. Many complications like these arise where vacant buildings are concerned.

This is going to be a major challenge. It was identified in the pilot report but I am not sure it has been given the focus it needs in terms of this policy. It will be an important element so we have to get it right.

I would like to make one other point that has been already raised. There was mention of a €30,000 grant to help people to purchase derelict properties. I have received a number of queries with regard to when that grant will be available and the criteria around it. The grant is badly needed, in particular for young people starting out who cannot afford to build or buy but would like to go the route of restoring a derelict property.

There are many references to digital transformation in this document. Remote working has been a lifeline for rural Ireland. It provides us with huge opportunities, but we have to get the remote working legislation right. We need to ensure the Minister for Rural and Community Development plays her role. We have to get that legislation right if the remote working hubs, many of which have been already established, are to work.

An Ceann Comhairle

In the absence of the speakers in the next slot, I will allow Deputy O'Reilly two minutes.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for accommodating me. I welcome the publication of the town centre first policy. Like most of the Members who have spoken this afternoon, I look forward to its implementation. The policy is a good idea. It looks good on paper. I would like to see it in action in our towns and villages.

I was somewhat disturbed by the recent remark by the Tánaiste that retail has changed and people are shopping online. He appeared to give up on retail. We need to get behind saving retail jobs. For that reason, I would ask the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, to consider engaging with the Mandate trade union and its proposed forum on the future of retail. As an Oireachtas, we need to fight for those jobs and to make them decent jobs. Let us not give up on retail. Let us make our town centres the type of places in which people want to live and spend time and, for those who have money, where they want to shop and spend some of it.

On the concept of making our town centres accessible for everyone, we need to look at this in the round. In recent times, we have had many discussions in this Chamber in regard to making our streets safe for women. Our town centres have to work and they have to be accessible for people with disabilities and accessible and safe for women, families and older people. They have to be places where everyone in the community wants to be. Towns and villages in my own area such as Rush, Lusk, Skerries, Malahide, Portmarnock, Balbriggan and Swords are wonderfully vibrant towns with fantastic young populations. We want to see our towns and villages thriving. These towns are crying out for remote working hubs. While the legislation around that did not get off to a great start, we are working to make it fit for purpose and to ensure the remote working hubs, when established, are accessible to all workers. This means they cannot be too expensive if they are to accommodate all workers.

The multi-stakeholder town teams are a very good idea. On Monday last, I attended a networking event organised by Dr. Lucy Michael as part of She Leads - We Lead, Fingal. This is a group that is working with women who are marginalised but are active in their communities and want to step up that activity. I urge the Minister of State, when putting together those teams, to look to organisations and initiatives such as She Leads - We Lead, Fingal and similar organisations in other areas to ensure we take in everybody and not just the people we would traditionally think would be involved. We need to bring in all voices, in particular marginalised voices, to ensure we are all working together to make our town centres better.

Deputy Emer Higgins

The ideas and aims contained within the town centre first policy are positive. I am particularly struck by the level of cross-party support that has been expressed today, which I hope is a good omen for the success of this policy.

Our towns and villages have shown remarkable resilience throughout the recent crisis. The move towards remote working has changed how many people not only work but live. It is a change most people have welcomed. We had reached a stage where many people, in particular young people, felt their only option in terms of career progression was to move to a bigger city, to be in the hubs of social and economic activity, and this led to overstretched cities, in particular Dublin, and, sometimes, deserted or neglected towns and villages.

Town centre first represents a new approach to the development of our towns where local communities and local businesses can be central to reimagining their own towns and planning their own futures. I welcome this policy commitment to reinvigorating those towns and villages, acknowledging that each town is unique and requires unique solutions to the challenges and opportunities it faces. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. The ambition of town centre first is one few people could argue with. We had many impressive and interesting submissions and recommendations to the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. All were constructive. I am glad to note a number of these recommendations are included in the town centre first policy. It is important as town centre first progresses that we look to those examples of best practice to inform our policy. We should learn from the areas where bad planning does not serve communities properly.

As has been said by many of my colleagues this afternoon, for the town centre first policy to work to its full potential, we need to crack our approach to derelict housing. We must nail down our policy for returning vacant and derelict housing to the housing stock. Regenerating our towns and villages, unlocking vacant homes and bringing them back into use will increase the supply of housing, deliver economic renewal for towns and villages, bring environmental and social benefits, and allow for more balanced regional development. On behalf of Fine Gael, I have chaired two provincial public meetings on dereliction, one for Munster and one for Connacht-Ulster, which were a great means of hearing the views of residents and industry experts on how action on dereliction can help to revitalise their towns and villages.

I welcome the recent expansion of the vacant homes officer role in local authorities. This will ensure greater action is taken on vacant homes across all local authorities. While all county councils already have vacant homes officers in place, in many instances they are part-time roles. The 20% increase in funding will allow these officers to dedicate their time to tackling housing vacancy on a full-time basis.

I welcome the Government funding for the development of Adamstown town centre in Lucan. The urban regeneration and development fund has provided €9.7 million in funding to provide for public infrastructure and amenities that will facilitate the development of the Adamstown town centre. It will create a Boulevard Park, library and a town centre plaza. These are amenities that will make Adamstown an all-round nicer place to live. It will support the continued roll-out of homes around the town centre because, on foot of this funding, more than 580 new homes will be constructed in my community. This will add to the provision of much-needed social, affordable and private housing in the Dublin Mid-West area. Everyone wants to live in a vibrant usable space where their needs are met and they and their family can thrive. Town centre first will achieve this.

I again welcome this initiative. I thank the Minister of State and his team for all their hard work in getting us this far and I wish them the very best with this project.

An Ceann Comhairle

If the Whip's office is observing, as we are almost half an hour ahead of schedule, we will be getting to Topical Issue Matters a lot earlier. I hope all involved will be here to deal with them.

Am I correct that the next slot is being shared by Deputies Harkin and McNamara?

Deputy Michael McNamara

And possibly Deputy Pringle.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy Pringle is on my list, not Deputy McNamara.

Deputy Marian Harkin

The publication of this town centre first policy document is a much-needed call to action. In so many of our small, medium and large towns there are derelict buildings in need of regeneration. Today is a good news day.

The Northern and Western Regional Assembly recently published a vacancy and dereliction analysis for the region. It makes for dismal reading. I will give some details in regard to a number of towns in my constituency where there was an increase in vacant commercial stock between 2015 and 2020.

In Carrick-on-Shannon, there was a 25% increase. In Manorhamilton, there was a 34% increase. In Sligo town, the capital of the north west, there was a 26% increase. In Ballymote, there was an increase of almost 19%. Boyle saw an increase of 38% while Ballyshannon and Bundoran fared better, at 5% and 6% respectively. In truth, not all towns had such sizeable increases in vacant commercial properties. However, the average for the entire region was 13.3%. That gives an overall picture of what is happening. It is also worth saying that the report did not capture the impact of Covid-19 on commercial vacancy rates in 2021. In that context, this policy document is a response to the historic and more recent decline of towns throughout the country.

The policy can have many benefits, including derelict properties being brought back as homes where people can live and thereby contribute to vibrant and sustainable communities. People talk about the increase in rents and the cost of buying a home. Normally they are referring to the larger cities but the Minister of State and I know that those increases in rents have, in recent times, been higher in counties such as Sligo and Donegal than in other parts of the country. This is hitting everywhere and, therefore, making derelict homes liveable homes, in which families can live and help to build and contribute to communities, is important.

In this particular report, which I have scanned through, a number of pilot town initiatives are mentioned, two of which happen to be in the constituency I represent. One is in Boyle, County Roscommon. The report refers to the town centre living initiative project. Some €2.1 million has been approved for Boyle regeneration, which will facilitate the refurbishment of the old Royal Hotel premises to create an enterprise centre, remote working hub and community space. Funding has also been approved for King House and the former premises of the Roscommon Herald.

Sligo is also highlighted and the success of the business improvement district is noted. Sligo has had a purple flag award since 2015. It is an internationally accredited award for reaching a standard of excellence in the evening and night-time economy. Sligo has also been approved for €48 million in funding under the URDF. That approval is in principle and a lot of work must be done. There are some very exciting projects being planned. There are seven public realm projects, which include street and town enhancements, and a cultural and learning hub or city campus in the Connaughton Road and Stephen Street centre. All of that is positive but there is one crucial issue, which is match funding. The local authority has to come up with 25% of the cost of URDF projects. In the case of Sligo, that is €16 million. It is a big issue for all local authorities but for a local authority such as Sligo, which has considerable historical debts, €16 million is a massive amount of money. The last thing any of us wants is for the €48 million, or any part of it, to be lost because of the extreme difficulty the local authority will face in coming up with match funding of €16 million. The Minister of State and I know that certain local authorities will find that money more easily than others. I ask the Minister of State to take that into consideration when this funding is being rolled out.

I also highlight the fact that Sligo County Council has been asked to prioritise the towns of Tubbercurry, Ballymote and Enniscrone, all of which badly need investment and regeneration. I will be carefully monitoring what is happening.

I echo the words of Deputy Calleary around the point that town centre first is important but cannot come at the expense of one-off rural houses. We are told there is no ban on such development but in reality, getting planning permission for one-off rural homes is like pulling hens' teeth. The Minister of State and I can discuss this matter further. We talked in the past about a pilot programme for building one-off rural houses in Leitrim. What progress is being made in that regard?

Deputy Michael McNamara

I welcome the Town Centre First policy document, which I looked at initially when it was launched and in more detail thereafter. I welcome the focus and attention the Minister of State has brought to bear on the need to develop our towns and address the problem of dereliction, an issue many Deputies have raised. I welcome that focus. However, I must say, as other speakers from both sides of the House have said, I am quite concerned by what is not in the plan.

To discuss what is in the plan, one of the main actions is that a town regeneration officer will be appointed to each local authority. That is great but what is it really going to achieve? All local authorities have plenty of staff. It is not as if they do not have any employees. They do; they have lots of them. Some local authorities do not seem to have the political will to address the problem of dereliction. That is what I would like to see tackled. What is the problem? Some local authorities are quite proactive. Those in Limerick and Mayo were particularly proactive in 2019, according to the figures provided by the Minister of State. Other local authorities have been much less proactive. Some of them did not issue any derelict site notices. I find it hard to believe there are any counties in Ireland without derelict sites. It is a blight in every area. It is not as bad as it was and things have improved in the two years since the general election, I think it is fair to say, in most counties. However, it is still a problem that persists.

There is a view in Clare County Council that the problem is legislative and that the legislation needs to be changed. Has the Minister of State or the Department consulted with local authorities to know why the implementation of the derelict sites legislative machinery is so uneven? Some local authorities are able to work it but others are not. Is the problem legislative? Do we need legislative change? Is the problem a lack of resources in some counties? Is the problem that counties have no resources or that they choose to spend the money on other issues and problems? We need to see derelict sites being brought back into use. I think the Minister of State very much agrees with that and it is an ambition in this plan. I am not saying the Minister of State is a fan of derelict sites because nobody is. The question is what are we going to do about it. I do not see enough about that in the plan.

We also need to see pilot projects. It is obviously very expensive to bring older buildings up to the current building regulation standards. Ms Shelley McNamara, a leading architect in Grafton Architects, is a Clare woman who is no relation of mine. I would not damn her by claiming she supports me in any way whatsoever. However, she has called for pilot projects in our market towns to examine building regulations. Nobody is saying building regulations should be abandoned but to bring older houses to the same standard as a new-build is a big ask, particularly for protected structures. Is there a bit more work that could be done around that? While I welcome what is in the plan, I have concerns about what is not in it. I would like to see more of a focus on legislation and what needs to be done to make the Derelict Sites Act more active.

There is a reluctance in some local authorities to issue a compulsory purchase order because the authority may then be stuck with the building and must expend a lot of money to bring it up to the standard required. In Scotland, there are compulsory sales orders whereby an owner is forced to sell a property within a certain period of time and the market determines what it is worth.

Is that something the Minister of State has considered? It would require legislative change but the Department might look into it. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the leeway.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy has given some important legal advice.

Deputy Michael McNamara

It is not legal advice but it is something to consider. It is done in Scotland and if it is good enough for that country, it might be worth considering in Scarriff and elsewhere.

An Ceann Comhairle

Thank you, Deputy. I invite the Minister of State to respond to what has been a very interesting debate.

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Peter Burke)

I thank Deputies for their contributions. It has been very interesting and worthwhile to hear different perspectives from all sides of the House.

Towns and villages are at the heart of many important administrative, social, community and recreational functions. They also support clusters of local services, have a significant share of homes and jobs and act as important and vital transport hubs. We want to ensure they remain resilient places, with vibrant, inclusive communities and a strong cultural and social fabric that can continue to deliver a good quality of life for future generations. The Government recognises that many Irish towns have already implemented significant place-making initiatives that have had a transformative effect on the town centre environment and people's sense of place. These exemplars have provided the template that is a starting point for place-making under our town centre first policy. The Government, through this policy, has developed a robust framework to support the dynamic and multifaceted nature of what makes Irish towns vibrant and enjoyable places to live. The 33 unique actions contained in the policy will create a cohesive and effective national framework for town regeneration that will drive supports for our towns, including the tools and resources they need to become more viable and attractive places in which to live, work, visit and run a business.

The town centre first policy will build on the expertise already apparent in the local government sector to ensure the policy agenda locally is linked to investment streams that will enable impactful initiatives to be realised, through connecting locally based projects with national funding programmes. Local authorities are well placed to work with their local communities in formulating specific actions at a local level, through the town centre first plan process, to ensure the proposals are based on local knowledge and are combined with technical support and concrete measures, including access to funding. This will help to drive and implement the policy successfully. The establishment of a dedicated town centre first regeneration officer post across local authorities will serve a critical co-ordination function at local level. The regeneration officer will play an essential role in mobilising, encouraging and supporting local town teams across his or her administrative area. Provision of €2 million in funding has been made for this role.

The town centre first policy is underpinned by an understanding that the structures developed at both national and local authority level must serve to identify, foster and enable the local expertise, hard work and pride of place that already are found within local communities throughout Ireland. That is why the policy has placed the development of new town teams, or support of existing teams, at its core. By harnessing the drive of local residents, business people, community representatives and others to see their hometowns thrive and prosper, for the benefit of residents and visitors alike, the town centre first policy can tap into a unique and irreplaceable resource. I am confident that with the help of the supports established under the policy, town teams across the country will establish themselves as empowered drivers of regeneration and growth.

The delivery of the town centre first strategy at a local level, regardless of the scale or category of the town, will be underpinned by an assessment of the current position of the town and the development of a plan that provides a vision for its future direction. The local expertise and understanding of the unique strengths of individual towns that can be garnered from the town teams will be a critical input into these plans. The national town centre first office and local authorities will support the teams in developing their own town centre first plans and ensuring they are aligned with local, regional and national regeneration strategies. Town centre first plans will serve to maximise the impact of investment from a range of funding streams available for town regeneration across a number of Departments and State agencies, including the URDF and the RRDF, which are already investing more than €600 million in regeneration projects in towns throughout the country. The initial 26 town centre first plans have already been funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development under phase 1 of the scheme. They will provide a vital input into the process as a whole and help to develop a roadmap for future plans.

As I outlined earlier, this focus on capturing and sharing knowledge and best practice established at a local level across a national framework is a key element of the town centre first strategy. We recognise there are already many towns in Ireland that are successfully undertaking actions and initiatives related to regeneration. They are organising locally to progress local development projects and programmes to improve their towns' environment and economy. The town centre first policy appreciates the significant benefits that can be gained by communities and their towns learning from each other and sharing experiences, particularly towns that have similar characteristics and contexts and which face common challenges to development. There is great value in exchanging and developing best-practice approaches to the many aspects of town regeneration, such as helping all to progress and develop, hearing from each other and learning from mistakes that were made in the past.

The establishment of the town centre first regeneration officer role and the national town centre first office will offer a new forum to identify and share lessons learned with towns and villages across the country. In addition, a number of pathfinder and early-stage towns will be identified nationally to act as early priority demonstrators of the town centre first approach. These selected towns will be at different stages of the process, from background research and analysis, preparation of the town centre first plan and project development to plan implementation and delivery. Pathfinders will involve a focused collaboration of the funders and agencies involved. The toolkit of best practice that will be established will assist towns that have not had capacity to shape their own development. By developing a roadmap to support towns that are at early stages in the town centre first process, we can maximise the impact of investment in town centre regeneration.

I am happy to have had the opportunity to outline the town centre first strategy today. The policy, as it has been developed by both my Department and the Department of Rural and Community Development, recognises the dynamic and multifaceted nature of what makes Irish towns vibrant and enjoyable places in which to live and work. Increasing the availability of new homes within towns is a key focus of the policy. Towns need people if they are to be successful and full of life.

A number of Deputies referred to the problem of derelict properties. Providing new homes for our citizens in towns, close to existing amenities, employment, education and local services, makes sense for everyone. The forthcoming funding schemes to tackle vacancy and dereliction problems in towns, namely, the Croí Cónaithe fund and the CPO programme, will provide practical supports to aid the redevelopment of building stock, thereby bringing life back into the streets of our towns on a permanent basis.

We are acutely aware of the potential to reuse and redevelop existing buildings for new homes. We need to assist people in a variety of ways to ensure the buildings we see vacant and derelict in our towns are brought back into residential use, each becoming a new home with the town on its doorstep. We have signalled, through the Housing for All plan, that by the second quarter of this year, every local authority should have its own full-time vacant homes officer. We have increased funding by 20% to achieve that. When local authorities are making decisions on prioritising their work programmes, it should not be the case that individuals working in the vacant homes office are also dealing with broadband provision, for example, and a variety of other tasks. Councils must be more co-ordinated in seeking to unlock the potential that lies right in front of them.

Deputy Calleary referred to the one-off rural housing policy. We are awaiting the successor draft document on the future sustainable development of rural housing. I am very clear in being aligned with his thinking in terms of how we understand and acknowledge that demand and develop it in a way that underwrites our citizens' rights and gives them the opportunity to avail of a secure rural life. That is very important and I eagerly await the draft document. It is important to understand that the town centre first policy is not only about town centres; it is trying to achieve a balance in terms of making our towns more vibrant, unlocking the potential in our brownfield sites, bringing back derelict properties, place-making and ensuring our neighbourhoods are liveable places. We also need to be very clear in looking after the outskirts of those towns. There are areas in rural Ireland that need to be accommodated. It is about getting a balance and I am hopeful we will be able to achieve that, with the co-operation of Members right across the House. It can be a divisive issue but we really want to work together to find a reasonable solution.

Several Deputies raised issues around the Housing for All plan.

We have a co-ordinated approach with increased funding of €5 billion for Irish Water. This is again seeking to unlock the potential of many settlements that are unfortunately held up because they do not have the key infrastructure. We are getting to a stage where items are plan-led as opposed to having loads of land zoned and the State not being able to predict where to put the infrastructure. We are getting around to that space now.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Thursday, 24 Feb 2022

Town Centre First Policy: Statements

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 24 Feb 2022