Mayo senator calls for extension of scheme to help revitalise market towns

MAYO Senator Mark Duffy has called for the Croí Conaithe (Cities) scheme to be extended to all towns with a population of 10,000 or more.

Keen to acknowledge the success of the Croí Conaithe (Towns) scheme, which has seen over 12,000 applications for funding to renovate vacant and derelict properties, he called on the Minister for Housing to ensure that all measures at his disposal were being used ‘to unlock one of the great social challenges of our time’.

Speaking in the Seanad, Senator Duffy pointed out that the two schemes, while sharing the same name, are in fact completely different programmes and that this has led to some confusion.

The Croí Conaithe (Towns) scheme is available anywhere with a population greater than 400 whereas the Cities scheme, which provides subsidies to developers to make apartment developments economically viable, is restricted to Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.

“We have towns such as Castlebar, Ballina and Westport where people would have lived on the streets, above the shops, vibrant town centres, and we should not be limiting Croí Conaithe just to our cities.

“I’m asking that it be expanded to towns with a population over 10,000 people,” he said.

Senator Duffy also asked that the scheme be modified for smaller towns where the number of units required would be based on a sliding scale relative to the population. This would allow for smaller developments in market towns with populations of three, four, five thousand people.

“I think it would be very welcome if we could introduce the Croí Conaithe (Cities) incentive and supports but on a smaller scale for towns and on a smaller scale again for small to medium towns and perhaps even villages.”