Rose Conway-Walsh: Calls out dereliction as shops lie empty

Minister, towns and villages up and down the country are suffering from dereliction. Vacant and boarded up shops are all too common now in what was once vibrant communities and towns. Once thriving businesses that employed local people have been replaced by empty units, a visible reminder that the government is failing our SME sector. I'd like to know what new initiatives you plan to introduce to tackle this escalating problem, as current solutions are obviously not working. Thank you. Minister. Thank you Cathaoirleach, I'd like to thank the Deputy for the question. At the outset I think it's very important that we all acknowledge the importance of having vibrant towns and villages and that local shops and the retail sector is an important part of achieving that aim. The retail sector provides highly important employment with over 220,000 people directly employed in retail, contributing to the economy of every city, town and village in Ireland. As you will be aware the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Rural and Community Development of Ireland developed the Town Centre First policy which was launched in 2022. This is a major cross-government policy which aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breed new life into our town centres. In March the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Brown launched the Vacant Over the Shop grant which will provide funding of up to €135,000 to support bringing above the shop vacant spaces into residential use where the commercial element is remaining. This grant is one of a number of measures including the targeted top-up of the Vacant Property Refurbishment grant and the Expert Advice grant aimed at unlocking unused spaces in cities, towns and villages by converting vacant and derelict buildings and unused above the shop areas into residential homes. The Retail Forum allows key issues of relevance to the retail sector to be discussed with a view to identifying practical actions which could be taken by government or by industry itself to support the sector with particular emphasis on achieving sustainable jobs and growth in the sector. The work of the Forum is driven by its members and the issues that they have identified has been critical to examine the support of sustainable jobs growth in retail. In relation to supports in the broad range of supports for the retail sector including training programmes, funding to help retailers adapt to new challenges and to gain opportunities can be found in our National Enterprise Hub, NEH.ie, where an all-of-government service staffed by expertly trained advisors is focused on helping businesses to access a range of government supports. Minister, your policies are not hitting the ground because towns and villages are hollowing out with visible increases in vacancy and dereliction and declining footfall. Small and independent retailers, particularly in rural and regional areas, are facing unsustainable cost pressures. We know that rising costs, be it from energy, insurance, rents and commercial rates, are disproportionately impacting small businesses compared to the larger multinationals. Minister Dillon is there beside you. I was only walking down the street in Castle Bar last week just to see the number. You know businesses that have been there for years and years and for generations and now those units are empty. That's exactly what I'm talking about. We need action to be able to ensure that those units are full, that they don't close down in the first place. But then if they do, that they're quickly repaired. I am concerned as well in towns like Balmolet, where then those shop units are taken over by residential in the middle of the town. I'm worried about where towns are going when we don't have businesses, when we won't have businesses in them. First of all, the National Towns First policy has 33 actions right across government to enhance our town centres and villages. It's really from the ground up, it's community-led to really accelerate those resources. The grant that I referenced of €135,000 will be an assistance to bring in accommodation over the shop. We established a small business unit within the department just a year ago and it's brought about a number of supports which are really targeted at our small business sector. You can see as evidenced by the CSO data that all 13 sectors in our economy are now growing. There are challenges in town centres and that's why these grants are specifically targeted to bring them back into life. We can see direct results of that and we'll see further to our Cree Kona initiative and now obviously bringing homes back into use and accommodation over the shop. I think that will have a big asset. We have our cost of business advisory form which is due to report in the coming weeks and that will again look at business costs. How do you try and achieve a position where you're taking less money off businesses through reducing their utility costs and indeed growing the revenue which is key to keeping them sustainable. Minister, I don't think what you're doing is working because basic vacancy rates in many towns are persistently high or rising, particularly outside the major urban areas. According to the geo directory commercial buildings report prepared by EY in February, the national commercial vacancy rate in Ireland increased to 14.6% by the end of 2025. Now this is the highest rate recorded by geo directory since it began tracking commercial vacancy data in 2013 and in total there were 30,687 vacant commercial units across the country in quarter four of 2025. So if what you've allowed outlined there were working this would not be the case. 14 counties experienced an increase in vacancy rates. Sligo recorded the highest commercial vacancy rate. So dereliction isn't just an aesthetic issue, it affects the local economy, it affects tourism economy and the existing group supports clearly aren't working. Minister. Thank you. I would argue that we have a number of new schemes, particularly the one that which was announced in April just gone by which will make a difference to dereliction and trying to reduce costs for business because we know and all the evidence points out that traditional retail and hospitality is under significant pressure due to costs and that's what I've really tried to do in the department bring about significant simplification measures trying to get additional grants into our small family businesses which employ two-thirds of people right across our economy and you can see that through our energy efficiency grant reducing costs or growing their digital platform and we're very fixated in doing that as well as the new changes that are made through the department of finance in relation to dereliction going through the revenue commissioners again that will be a carrot and stick approach we've now very significant grants on the positive side but also the government has demonstrated that it will take action if properties are not brought back into use and particularly when you have a housing challenge it's important now that we see conversion rates increase and I think the policy balance we've got now will achieve that. you