Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Sirr and Mr. Friel for their excellent presentations. They overlapped and said very similar things. I thank the witnesses for submitting the presentations in advance, which I read, as that was very helpful and important. To stay focused, we are dealing with vacant housing, derelict sites and unused spaces. My colleague to my right is correct. There are 31 local authorities in this country and they have statutory obligations. They are also the housing and planning authorities, with a wide range of functions. Where we are today is an indictment of the local authority system.

The local government auditing services are carried out by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. That is a problem for another day as, frankly, local government should not be audited by its parent Department. I took a random look yesterday at a number of the local government audit reports for 2015, which are the most recent examples on-line and which one can inspect. Clearly, the local government auditors for a number of local authorities, including that of which I was a member, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, singled out for criticism local authorities that had not complied with the obligation to keep a computerised record of properties within their ownership. I am not talking about the private sector but rather within the ownership of the local authority. The response from the chief executive, which is always requested in the case of comments that are good, bad or indifferent from a local government auditor, is there was a lack of resources to carry out the work. That has been going on for years and it is something we should bring to the Minister's attention at some point. Maybe the local authorities should not have this responsibility and if they are not capable of doing it, someone else should do it. We are talking about public assets and property. The local authorities are the guardians of these. The witnesses shared a shocking statistic today about Dublin City Council and the amount of space that is empty. Serious questions must be asked about it. Perhaps at some other stage we should bring in the chief executives of local authorities in order to ask those questions.

In Dr. Sirr's presentation he mentions land hoarding and the lack of meaningful measures to counteract vacant sites. I know he has gone into this. I am really interested in solutions and I know he is too. In his submission he also argues that Government policy is geared towards inflating the price of houses on which the viability of NAMA's residential portfolio depends. That is a very profound statement with which I do not necessarily disagree. Will Dr. Sirr tease that out and give some substance to that argument?

The witness made a very good case with regard to the fair deal scheme and it is something that should be pursued. In my part of the world and all over there are many empty houses because people have gone into nursing homes having availed of the fair deal. These are solid houses with three and four bedrooms but the families are not renting them out because of taxation issues. The witness made the valid point that a person may rent a room in a house for €14,000 without paying any tax. Perhaps there should be a threshold or cap so such houses could be rented if they meet standards and are safe. Renting rooms in this way is a good and positive suggestion. In particular parts of Dublin city and county, it is a real problem so this is worth discussing.

Mr. Friel spoke on behalf of the Peter McVerry Trust.

He made some good points on a vacant property tax, with which I fully agree. He also made a valid point on compulsory purchase orders. Local authorities argue that they do not have sufficient funds to proceed with compulsory purchase orders for derelict properties and buildings that are falling down. People have a right to private property and taking private property creates problems. Valuations are also an issue. The Government must establish a fund for compulsory purchase because many local authorities do not have sufficient funds to make such purchases. Officials from a number of local authorities have informed me that they will not proceed with compulsory purchase orders because they will not waste money, resources, staff and legal expertise on them. This problem needs to be addressed.

My colleague, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, asked how the committee could be productive rather than sitting in this room talking into a jar. It was suggested a report on our deliberations today be used to feed into the national vacant housing reuse strategy which is part of the Rebuilding Ireland programme. The various papers and our deliberations should be summarised in a report for submission to the Minister and incorporation into the national vacant housing reuse strategy. The Minister intends to deliver the strategy in the first quarter of the year and it is now February. I thank the delegates for their contributions.