Regeneration Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

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.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26