Galway East TD Seán Canney has welcomed a ‘pending’ announcement of a new scheme for first time buyers to purchase vacant properties.
Deputy Canney said that the scheme will provide grants of up to €30,000 to help towards the cost of renovating the property.
The Independent TD has advocated for such a support scheme for a number of years, and said that it makes sense to bring these vacant buildings back into use.
It was also part of the Regional Group’s submission in last year’s budget.
“There are 27,000 such properties in the West and North West region,” said Deputy Canney.
“By renovating these properties, we will be regenerating our towns and villages and also help to find solutions to our housing crisis. It also makes sense from a Carbon saving perspective.”
Canney said that he strongly believes that the Government should go further and extend the Help to Buy Scheme to these properties and remove the necessity for planning which is an unnecessary cost and time delay.
“The housing crisis needs immediate urgent action and by utilising our existing vacant housing stock we will make some progress in solving the crisis.”
