Vacant property scheme improvements tabled

A Cork county coucillor has called for improvements to be made to the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant that will make it faster and easier to manage financially.

Fine Gael Cllr Liam Madden said the scheme, which provides up to €50,000 to help with the refurbishment of vacant and derelict homes, has brought about “enormous” positive change since it was brought in.

However, speaking at a meeting of Cork County Council on Monday, Cllr Madden said he feels the planning process within the scheme should be shortened.

“People find that if you have to get planning first and you don’t get approval afterwards for your property, it’s money down the swanny,” said Cllr Madden.

He also suggested a staged payout of money rather than one lump sum to help buyers to manage their costs throughout their refurbishment project. “When people are building a house, they are used to stage payments so I think it’s important,” he said.

Cllr Madden praised the scheme and said its success is crucially important and that it should be promoted in any way possible.

“The success of it out in rural countryside has been fantastic. The uptake in towns and villages has been a bit slower,” he added. Supporting Cllr Madden’s motion, Fine Fáil Cllr Gearoid Murphy called the scheme a “wonderful initiative” and said: “The greenest home you can build is the one that’s already built.”

Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Frank O’Flynn added that he had no doubt that the scheme will eventually result in their being no vacant sites left in rural Ireland.

A response to Cllr Madden’s motion from Cork County Council’s Senior Engineer Liam Ahearn said the current structure of the grant scheme and the process of approval and drawdown do not facilitate stage payments being made.

However, Mr Ahearn said the request can be raised with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. “From our experience of managing the grant, if stage payments were considered, this would require fundamental changes to the structure and operation of the scheme and they could not be implemented within the current grant process,” wrote Mr Ahearn.