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Rural Resettlement Scheme

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 October 2016

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

Ceisteanna (287)

John Lahart

Ceist:

287. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the excellent work that is carried out by an organisation (details supplied); his plans to provide funding to allow this concept to continue and to grow; if he is aware that this charity is now operating with only one full time member of staff; his plans to allocate funding to increase the staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30425/16]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

As outlined in Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Government is committed to developing a range of measures supportive of the regeneration and renewal of towns and villages across rural Ireland and, consequently, ensuring a vibrant population in those places. It is my aim that all reasonable steps are taken to secure the re-use of vacant and under-utilised properties for residential purposes, particularly in the many towns and villages in rural Ireland that contain a significant number of empty houses. Action 5.1 of the Action Plan provides for the development of a National Vacant Housing Re-Use Strategy by early 2017 and I intend to examine the potential to widen the geographical range of social housing location options available to persons seeking such accommodation.

The Strategy will examine the potential for bringing existing but vacant housing back into beneficial use and I intend to examine mechanisms to match such accommodation potential to prospective applicants for social housing, through measures such as the Repair and Leasing Initiative, which will see up-front financial assistance being made available to upgrade empty, but sub-standard, accommodation in return for leasing the property back for social housing purposes. Acquisition and leasing options are also available to local authorities to ensure that households needing accommodation may be provided with that accommodation.

As the Deputy may be aware, my colleague, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, has overall responsibility for regional and rural matters and is advancing a broadly based rural development strategy, in the context of the Programme for a Partnership Government. In conjunction with this overarching Strategy, the development of a rural resettlement programme will be considered further in the context of taking forward the range of measures set out in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan.

In the circumstances, I have no plans at present to make funding available to Rural Resettlement Ireland.

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