I raise with the Tánaiste the extension of the living cities initiative to five regional towns, including two in my constituency, Drogheda and Dundalk. When he has the opportunity he might state exactly when the initiative will go live for the new areas provided for under the Finance Act.

I thank Deputy Nash for raising this issue, which he has raised on a number of occasions. As the Deputy and the House are aware, the living city initiative is a targeted measure aimed at specific areas in need of regeneration. It offers either income or corporation tax relief for qualifying expenditure incurred in the refurbishment and conversion of qualifying residential and commercial buildings located in what we call special regeneration areas, currently in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford. Budget 2026 announced a number of enhancements to the living city initiative to strengthen the scheme, including extending it to the end of 2030 and that it will be available to residential properties built before 1975 instead of 1915. Also, if work is carried out by an enterprise, the maximum relief available will be increased from €200,000 to €300,000.

It was also announced, to get to the nub of the Deputy’s question, that the scheme would be extended to five regional centres, as set out in the national planning framework, namely, Athlone, Drogheda, Dundalk, Letterkenny and Sligo. The cities and towns in which the special regeneration areas may be located are not specified in primary legislation. Instead, the existing areas were designated following consultation with the relevant city councils and an independent review by a third-party adviser. We are repeating that process for the new areas.

I am pleased to say my Department has very recently received the draft special regeneration area maps for each of the five towns from the relevant local authorities. I acknowledge the speed at which the local authorities moved, which is really important. An independent review of the draft maps will now be undertaken to ensure the maps' consistency with the criteria for the special regeneration area. My officials are currently working on appointing an expert for that review. Upon the satisfactory conclusion of that review, it will fall to me to designate the special regeneration areas by an order. I anticipate that the areas will be designated by the end of March. It will then be a matter for the local authorities to implement the scheme. My expectation, based on engagement, is that all of the new special regeneration areas will be open by June at the latest. I look forward to keeping the Deputy up to date on that.

I agree and I want to pick up on that point around the local authorities. Although I am quick enough to criticise various local authorities on various occasions, I want to acknowledge the speed at which Louth County Council and the councils for the other three areas moved. That shows, as Deputy Nash said, the scourge that dereliction and vacancy are, and in a housing emergency. We are all aligned on the need for this and I am pleased that we should be in a position to designate the special regeneration areas by the end of March and get these schemes open for applications, I hope, by June.

That point about the low uptake of the existing scheme is fair. Some of it is related to publicising the scheme and getting the word out there. I will certainly reflect on how we can do more of that with the local authorities. In regard to some of the changes we have made around the over-the-shop criteria, 1915 was probably too restrictive and we are moving it to 1975. We are also providing the certainty that it will be in place until 2030 and, coupled with the five additional towns, I hope it will make a real difference. We will obviously all need to monitor this. I know the Deputy's county is the only one that has two towns in the scheme, Drogheda and Dundalk. I have been in Drogheda and I know the challenge of dereliction. I think this will make a big difference.

It is one weapon in our armoury. There is no doubt about that but we need to take a varied approach to this. Another initiative, which was announced in the budget last year, was the transitioning of the derelict sites levy to a derelict sites tax. By definition, the responsibility for the collection of that tax will be given to the Revenue Commissioners. I have been campaigning for that for years; it makes sense. I always made the point that business owners who can afford to allow a building to become vacant and derelict must be quite wealthy because owners need to sweat every single asset they have to make sure their business is successful. Sometimes the only language that people understand is the brown envelope with the harp on it containing a tax demand. It is important we introduce that as quickly as possible.

I am a bit confounded as to why it will take so long to introduce the tax, or transition from the levy to the tax. We have a very sophisticated system in Revenue. We could set up a very complex wage subsidy scheme practically overnight thanks to the expertise of officials in Revenue, the Department of Finance and elsewhere, with the support of IBEC, ICTU and so on. I am confounded as to why the derelict sites tax will take so long to introduce.

The Deputy is right that the living cities initiative is just one tool. That is fair. The derelict sites tax will be another. It is my intention to update the Government in March on the policy direction in relation to that. We are working closely on it. There are meetings, at least weekly, between my Department, the Department of housing at official level. It is, as the Deputy knows, my intention to legislate for that tax in the next budget. We have not decided on the rate yet but it will be no lower than the current rate. There is an argument to be had around whether it should be higher but we will return to that.

I accept this is a big body of work so I am not apportioning any kind of blame or responsibility. I think Revenue will be able to do this quite quickly. The challenge will be when it is ready to be done in terms of what is dereliction and the consistent application of dereliction. When you move, as the Deputy knows, from a levy to a tax, it has to be applied formally. I am very open to having a conversation about how quickly it can be done but it will involve a lot of work on the part of the local authorities as well as Revenue. Revenue is good at collecting tax but we have to have absolute clarity on the maps, dereliction, what is a tax and how that is applied in Louth and Wicklow on a consistent basis.