Council unveils grants to tackle vacant offices

A new building grant and commercial rates waiver scheme has been unveiled in Cork City in a bid to tackle the problem of office vacancy.

The pilot project is targeted at the owners of protected structures and is designed to incentivise them to invest in their buildings and rent them out.

Successful applicants could get a grant of up to €15,000 for building works, and benefit from a 50% waiver in their rates in year one, with a sliding waiver scale applied for a further two years.