2026-05-26

137. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if any applications have been made to date to the Revenue Commissioners from property owners in Drogheda and Dundalk for access to the living cities initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39890/26]

I am seeking an update on the number of applications or inquiries that have been made with the Revenue Commissioners in relation to the living cities scheme since its expansion to cover Drogheda and Dundalk. I appreciate that it was only a month ago that this happened but this is a critical scheme for the area to address vacancy and dereliction. If the Minister has an update, I would it if he put it on the record of the House.

I appreciate the Deputy's support for the initiative. The living city initiative is provided for in Chapter 13 of Part 10 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. It offers income or corporation tax relief for qualifying expenditure incurred in the refurbishment and conversion of qualifying residential and commercial buildings located within special regeneration areas. Often these are inner city or central town areas where there is above-average unemployment and which demonstrate clear evidence of dereliction, perhaps neglect and under-use. There are four types of relief available under the initiative: owner-occupier residential relief, rented residential relief, commercial relief and living-over-the-shop relief. As the Deputy will be aware, we introduced this in 2015. We took a decision in the last budget to expand that as well and the Deputy was eager that that would happen. Indeed, it was expanded to five more areas, namely, Athlone, Drogheda, Dundalk, Letterkenny and Sligo. I appreciate the speed at which the local authorities worked. I acknowledge Louth County Council in getting in the maps that my Department was then able to get independently assessed. The scheme, as the Deputy says, now has opened. I am advised by Revenue that it has recently received information from Louth County Council in respect of the number of requests for letters of certification received by the local authority. Revenue understands that Louth County Council has received fewer than ten requests between 8 April 2026, when the scheme was opened, and 20 May 2026. As the Deputy says, it is a short window. For reasons of taxpayer confidentiality, Revenue will never give the exact number but just under ten is an indication. In only a month of the scheme, I see that as somewhat encouraging. I will continue to monitor this. I am happy to provide the Deputy with further updates as they become available.

Vacancy and dereliction is an absolute scourge that is affecting every town, city and village across this country. For many years, I have sought the expansion of the scheme to areas such as Drogheda and Dundalk. Drogheda, especially, as the Minister will understand, is a very ancient area with sensitive architecture. That being said, one of the main aspects of this scheme now is that it applies, at least from the point of view of commercial premises, to properties that were developed before 1975. It previously pertained to buildings built prior to 1915. The change to 1975 should capture quite a significant number of buildings that could be brought back on stream. One thing I propose would be that the Revenue Commissioners proactively market this. If it is the case that in previous iterations of the scheme, the Revenue Commissioners went out and conducted workshops in communities trying to promote the scheme, can they be encouraged to do so?

That is a fair point. Truthfully, I do not know whether Revenue went out and marketed the scheme previously. From my recollection, it is generally the local authorities that promote the scheme and obviously the Revenue Commissioners that administer the scheme. On the Deputy's broader point as to whether we should have roadshows or workshops, absolutely we should. On foot of the Deputy raising this here this evening, I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Browne, from the local authority perspective, and my own officials and Revenue, and see what can be organised here. We set up these schemes because we want them to succeed. We set them up because we accept that the issue of dereliction is real. Dundalk and Drogheda won the argument in terms of the need for that scheme to be expanded and now we want it to be a success. In the first instance, I would encourage at a local level the local authority and other stakeholders, who I am sure will, to get the word out there. Should that be happening, if we can supplement that with Revenue or the likes, I will certainly engage with the Deputy positively on that to try to make that happen. I will talk to the Minister, Deputy Browne, and we will both revert to the Deputy.

One important aspect is that this is user-friendly and accessible. The Revenue Commissioners and the Department have taken on board some of the critiques of the scheme over the past few years. Certainly, the enhancement of the scheme will make it more attractive. Clearly, it will become more attractive to enterprises that are engaging in redevelopment given the expansion of the value of the relief from €200,000 to €300,000. In reality, with some of the sensitive and large-scale buildings we are talking about in areas such as Drogheda and Dundalk, it may be only commercial enterprises that will have the deep pockets, ambition and wherewithal to undertake the work that would be needed on architecturally sensitive buildings to put them back into use. I know from the maps - I acknowledge the Minister stated quite correctly that Louth County Council were quick out of the traps in terms of developing the proposed special area of regeneration - that close to 60 buildings in that area are considered to be derelict and this could be a game-changer, if it is taken up. It is important that Revenue promotes it. I myself will contact them and make that case that they may very well need to conduct some workshops with the local authority and local businesses.

As I say, I am positively disposed to that. We passed a law in this House to make this living city initiative available to five more regional towns, including places such as Drogheda and Dundalk. We all want to see it succeed now. We have tried to show flexibility as a Department and as a Government in terms of enhancing the scheme. In the previous Finance Act, there were a number of enhancements. First, the scheme was extended to the end of 2030. Second, it is now available to residential properties built before 1975 instead of 1915, as the Deputy said. Furthermore, if the work is carried out by an enterprise, the maximum relief has been increased from €200,000 to €300,000. Of course, the big announcement, from the Deputy's perspective, was it was extended to five regional centres, including Dundalk and Drogheda. The new living-over-the-shop relief is an important step in terms of trying to bring life back onto our main streets, tackle dereliction, but also the whole safety and security issue that can create in a positive sense as well. Having no building age rule for the conversion of commercial into residential will facilitate greater access to the relief for living-over-the-shop or mixed-use developments. I will follow up with the Deputy in relation to that workshop concept.