A local senator has highlighted vacant housing grants and the potential for it to be extended to commercial properties.
Robbie Gallagher has described the grant as a great success, noting that there are no silver bullets to fix the housing crisis but there are small steps that can help to increase the supply.
Up to March this year, there have been over 12,000 applications, of which over 8,500 have been approved to a value of €112.5 million.
Locally, Cavan received 395 applications and approved 308 while in Monaghan, 311 applications were received.
Senator Gallagher said he was taken by remarks made recently by the Hardware Association of Ireland, which recently met Minister Deputy James Browne, on its proposal to see the grant extended to commercial properties.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Senator Gallagher talked about what he would like to see now.
"What I'd like to see now is perhaps this extended and to explore the possibility of bringing first floor space above the shop or second floor space and there's loads of it around all our towns and villages that we should be looking to see how we can bring that back into residential use. All the services are there, the water is there, the sewage is there, the ESB is there, everything's there. So it's only a matter of converting whether it'd be a vacant office space whatever into residential use and I think if there was a grant in place that the owners of those premises would be incentivised to do go ahead and try and bring residential units into those locations. I think that will be a huge positive, not just for the people that will be living in them, but indeed for bringing more life and more heart into our towns and villages"
