Move to regenerate 100-year-old stock

Moves to regenerate housing stock more than a century old in Ireland’s main cities are at an advanced stage, Finance Minister Michael Noonan insisted yesterday.

The Living City Initiative aims to provide grants for people to spruce up historic homes in Limerick, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, and Kilkenny.

Mr Noonan said that discussions with the European Commission were going well on funding for the scheme.

“The Living City Initiative, announced in Budget 2013 and extended last year to all six of our cities, targets certain areas that are most in need of regeneration in these cities,” said Mr Noonan.

“Discussions with the European Commission are at an advanced stage and I am hopeful that the local authorities in each city — Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, and Kilkenny — will be in a position to suggest final proposals for eligible areas in their cities later this year in time for the full roll-out of the initiative in early 2015.

“This is a very attractive initiative designed to bring families back into our city centres and to maximise the use of existing pre-1914 buildings by transforming them into modern homes. This initiative allows home owners to offset the entire cost of renovation against their income tax over a 10-year period.”