merrion street

Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, has today welcomed the introduction by the Minister of Finance of the Living City Initiative as part of the Finance Bill 2013.

The Living City Initiative is a targeted pilot tax incentive which aims to seek to promote the regeneration of urban historic areas on a pilot basis by focusing on:

1. encouraging people back to the centre of Irish cities to live in historic buildings;

2. encouraging the regeneration of the retail heartland of central business districts.

The Initiative will provide tax incentives for works performed to refurbish residential and retail buildings either to bring them up to a habitable standard or to make improvements to buildings which are currently inhabited. The incentives will be targeted at owner/occupiers and is being legislated for in Finance Bill 2013. Legislation will be provided subject to commencement order which will be dependent on EU State Aid approval.

Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht commented:

"I fully support the idea of the development of a scheme for urban historic areas on a pilot basis. In my view the proposed pilot has the potential to assist the State, both at central and at local government levels, in its responsibility to protect the nation’s architectural heritage and to encourage sustainable development and re-use of our urban historic core areas."

He added: "Such a scheme would complement recent policy developments by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in this regard, which have included the Historic Towns Initiative (HTI) and the publication of Shaping the Future – Case Studies in the Adaptation and Reuse in Historic Urban Environments, a new guidance manual aimed at the re-use of protected structures.

The living City Initiative will aim to preserve existing heritage assets, stimulate heritage-led regeneration and add to the long term sustainable development of these locations."