Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Dillon, Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Silke, Mr. Walsh and Mr. McGuinness. In particular, I welcome Ms Catherine Keenan, who is director of services in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, a council with which I am more familiar. I again thank the witnesses for submitting their presentations in advance. This gives us the great advantage of being able to read them and in some way prepare the questions we may put to the witnesses. In his submission, Mr. O'Connor talked about Part 5 of the Government's action plan. We all know that the priority in Rebuilding Ireland is to focus on utilising existing stock, particularly in Pillar 5. Local authority representatives appeared before us. We are focusing on vacant houses, derelict sites and underused spaces this morning. There was a lot of repetition in all the presentations because we all know it is the same problem. There are different suggestions as to how we might address it. Based on my own experience and on talking to a number of local authorities, there is a lack of hard facts and hard data. I am talking about public housing. Dublin City Council was mentioned this morning. I do not want to go into that but the amount of property on the books of that council was shared with us earlier and is quite alarming. I would like to hear, particularly from the CCMA, about how they are centralising their registers for their property and land assets. In 2015, the Local Government Audit Service raised a number of issues relating to a substantial amount of the 31 local authorities in terms of the transfer of that data from paper files and registers to an electronic system and the mapping of all of that. That is an important aspect of fully understanding what is needed.

Mr. Pat Doyle from the Peter McVerry Trust spoke here this morning. He said that his experience with local authorities was always very positive. That was really interesting. He spoke about the enormous goodwill, expertise and specialist resources and commitment in local authorities. I thought that was really encouraging and I wanted to share it with the witnesses. It is not a criticism of local authorities but perhaps we need to hear whether they have the necessary resources and funding because it is about funding and resources to do the job really well. Perhaps the witnesses might share their views on this.

The witnesses spoke about compulsory purchase. I am also aware that this is a huge burden. I am hearing that local authorities are very reluctant to proceed with compulsory purchase given litigation issues, issues relating to the constitutional right to property and proper legal mapping of title of properties. There are family legal issues surrounding some properties, which is why they are vacant. We know about the fair deal scheme. There are short-term properties in certain parts of Dublin - very good and well-maintained properties that are empty for reasonably long periods of time.

Could the witnesses please share that information with us because it is an important issue? Looking at the register of the National Oversights & Audit Commission and the league table, if one likes, for 2015, I wish to again single out Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as it is the lowest in terms of the directly provided dwellings that were vacant as of 31 December 2015 with 0.66%. It is the local authority with the lowest level of all local authorities, which is encouraging. It is closely followed by Kilkenny County Council and South Dublin County Council. However, there is a huge gap after those three. I accept it is a case of horses for courses and things are different in different areas. I wish to refer to one or two issues before I conclude.

The Housing Agency has a €70 million fund which is available for the acquisition of vacant sites. What is the source of the funding? How has that come about? Figures have been set out for the amount of houses that have been acquired. Could we have a breakdown in terms of the 31 local authorities as to where the houses were purchased and how they are distributed within local authorities? We need to have more facts and evidence-based information. It would be very helpful for the committee if we could see where the properties have been acquired in the 31 local authorities and how the properties have been distributed among the local authorities.

I talked about derelict sites and I accept there is a challenge in that regard. On local authorities preparing a register for the relevant sites, that is really important for the private sites but, first, let us face it, local authorities have vast amounts of sites on their own books and we cannot be judge and jury in all of these matters. We need to see a definitive register of those sites.

Turning to the CCMA, I am struck by Mr. Walsh's practical, hands-on approach in his commentary today. Many of the issues ring a bell. It is very interesting to hear it as it is, and he put it over really well in terms of some of the challenges. It is clear we will see another report soon for 2016 on letting times. I hope we will be able to compare it to 2015 and see further improvements. I do not think anyone is delaying matters. Mr. Walsh set out very eloquently and clearly the complexities and the need to get houses right. They must be right and appropriate for people as they are their homes. It is not all a numbers game. The houses must be high quality and compliant with the regulations. That is really important.

Previous speakers, including Deputy Casey, spoke about the potential for identifying sites especially in urban areas. There has been much talk about empty space. I spoke to someone recently in Athy, County Kildare, which is a place that is full of empty properties on the main streets that have been consistently refused planning permission for residential, and in some cases it was only sought for the upstairs. There have been derelict shops on the main street for up to ten years. There are about 14 pubs empty in the town and a use cannot be found for them. There is a reluctance on the part of local authorities to change the use, based on rates. It is clear that there are other factors such as the streetscape, urban design and the public realm. One is especially conscious of that in the case of heritage towns or market towns but a lot more could be done.

The more information we can get the better on the 31 local authorities, and it should be broken down as tat would be really helpful. We also need some reassurance on the current position of each local authority in terms of the register. We also need a commitment from local authorities to provide information at a later date on where they are in relation to their own property assets. It is good corporate governance and makes sense that every local authority would be able to produce a detailed, definitive and comprehensive register and mapping system of its property assets, if the local government auditor were to arrive in any county hall. That would provide enormous potential for new social and affordable housing. I thank the witnesses for their presentations.