I want to address the issue of vacancy in our towns and villages. The previous encouragement over many decades of one-off housing has undermined retail in our towns and villages as once people are in their cars, many choose to visit out-of-town retailers near the large urban centres. The Government has taken a progressive approach to rural development. The promised legislation I wish to ask the Taoiseach about is the commitment in Our Rural Future to examine the feasibility of introducing what is called “meanwhile use” legislation, so that empty buildings and shopfronts on main streets can be brought back into compatible use on a short-term, temporary basis as pop-up shops, street markets and exhibition spaces, or for other purposes in accordance with the "Putting Town Centres First" policies. This could be a welcome measure to bring vitality back to our towns and villages.

I agree with the Deputy. We need to move in terms of our towns first policy and in terms of rural development, and also, in my view, where we can, to incentivise people to reinvest or invest in buildings that are dilapidated or vacant, both for residential and entrepreneurial activities. It is something the Government is committed to. The key issue is to co-ordinate departmental work on rural development with the grants that are available, with broadband issues and with the creation of hubs in terms of entrepreneurship. That is something the economic recovery plan focuses on. Last year's July stimulus provided a lot of money for that as well, so we want to see that following through.