As part of Budget 2026, the Government announced the extension of the Living City Initiative.
The scheme, which provides targeted tax incentives to encourage investment and bring vacant or underused buildings back into use, has been extended until 2030.
It has also been expanded to cover properties built before 1975 and it will now also support the conversion of "over-the-shop" premises for residential use, helping to revitalise older urban areas.
Athlone joins Sligo, Drogheda, Dundalk and Letterkenny as new regional centres under the initiative, alongside existing centres of Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford.
So what will this mean for the towns and cities where it is being implemented?
Our Midlands Correspondent Sinéad Hussey looks at Athlone and how this new initiative could impact the town.
'Real opportunity' to get people back into town
Mel McGerr is Director of Adamson McGerr Architects in Athlone. Having been based in a retail park, the company will soon up open a new premises in the town centre.
He believes the initiative, if it is implemented properly, could be hugely beneficial for Athlone and help address dereliction and vacant buildings.
Mr McGerr said: "Something like the Living City Initiative is a real opportunity to try and encourage people to come back into the town. If we can encourage more people to come and live here, I think it can only be a positive.
"You look at places like Connaught Street that has suffered dereliction for quite a long time and it's a beautiful street with some really interesting buildings. It has lovely character.
"I feel that if we can encourage owner occupiers or the people who have those buildings to either use them or move them on, it would be great and hopefully something like this can help stimulate investment in the town."
Mr McGerr said he is hopeful the scheme will deliver real change on the ground. For too long, tax reliefs in this area have been overly complex and underused, he said.
"Some time schemes like this are complex and they're offputting. Hopefully the local authority will do some workshops to explain how this works, simplify it, encourage people to get involved," he said.
"You need to simplify these things to make them attractive and the overall goal should be that the town benefits by having buildings that are attractive and occupied.
"As a result, there are more people in the area eating in restaurants, drinking in the bars and visiting the amenities that are here.
"Hopefully they will look at other places where this has been implemented, like in Limerick and Waterford and learn that those," he said.
"Engagement will be important and we also need to make sure that local area plan is updated. It will be hard develop if we're still waiting for an updated local area plan," he added.
Retail is shrinking in Ireland
Rosie Boles is owner of Ireland's oldest department stores, Burgess of Athlone, and like business owners has been weighing up the initiative since it was announced in Budget 2026.
"We are listed in a building, so that immediately comes with extra costs," explained Ms Boles.
"We actually have planning permission for one apartment above the shop at the moment, and we were thinking of going and seeking planning for two more apartments.
"Prior to this, the red tape got us as a far as if we were going to live in them ourselves, then we could get relief and if we weren't, we couldn't so we put a pause on all of that.
"Obviously we're going to look at it again but just on my quick figures, and I haven't spoken to my accountant yet, I think the relief could end up being around €5,000 over a seven-year period," she said.
Ms Boles said that while the initiative is welcome, in the current retail climate, she is unsure whether she will avail of it.
"Retail is shrinking in Ireland, there's 17,000 less jobs this year than there was last year in retail," she said.
"You're very tight, so you don't have the capacity that we had a number of years ago to deal with the rainy days.
"Take for example, at the moment, I have a roof that I need to deal with so you're kind of limited on what is feasible to borrow," she added.
Overall, Ms Boles said she hopes the initiative will boost vibrancy in the town.
"I'd be delighted to see people coming back into town. How nice would it be if you were working from home and you could walk out the door and have a whole life in front of you, rather than being completely isolated," she said.
'If this helps it will be great'
Declan Delaney, the owner of what is claimed to be Europe's oldest pub, Sean's Bar in Athlone, is welcoming the initiative, saying he hopes it will have positive benefits for the local economy and for tourism in particular.
"It's very sad when you say building left idle and derelict, they can be a real eye-sore, so if this helps it will be great," said Mr Delaney.
"Everything helps in making the town more attractive," said Mr Delaney.
He also believes there is a demand for 'over the shop' living.
"It's attractive to a lot of people in at certain times of their lives. Young people like to live in a town, be able to walk to restaurants, pubs or the cinema" he said.
The Athlone Chamber of Commerce said it's a "positive step" for Athlone.
"We are keen advocates of the over the shop rejuvenation, and we think this should help deliver that" said CEO of Athlone Chamber of Commerce Tommy Hogan.
"We would certainly hope that it will bring more vibrancy to the town. We've been working with the executive in Westmeath County Council and we see this as being a wonderful addition to the work we're doing" he said.
"We will work hand in glove with the council and make sure the Chamber is at the forefront of delivering on this" he added.
'A vote of confidence in Athlone'
Local Fianna Fáil Councillor Frankie Keena said he will be calling on Westmeath County Council to undertake immediate work to identify special regeneration areas in Athlone, acknowledging there is work to do.
"This is a real vote of confidence in Athlone" said Councillor Keena.
"The beauty of this scheme is that it offers relevant property owners attractive tax incentives to refurbish their vacant commercial buildings and also convert 'over the shop' spaces into badly needed urban based residential properties.
"It will bring new life and vibrancy into the town, while also addressing the issue of housing"
"We need to get working on this as soon as possible, as we only have a five year window" he added.
