House buyers are to be offered renovation grants to restore properties in small towns and villages as part of the Government’s long-promised plan to revive rural Ireland.

Cash grants for refurbishing old buildings in rural communities are to form a central plank of the Government’s Action Plan for Rural Development, reports the Irish Independent (January 17, 2017).

The scheme is aimed at luring all house buyers, but specifically older people and first-time buyers, back into rural communities damaged by unemployment during the recession.

Young people buying houses in designated rural towns would be given cash grants to renovate their new homes along with the tax relief available under the first-time buyer scheme.