Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 25 January 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Urban Regeneration: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Thomas GouldThomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that, and I mean no disrespect to the staff who are doing multiple jobs, but this goes to the crux of the problem. There is no one in the Department working on an estimated 92,000 or 90,000 vacant properties. We do not have a team. We should have a team in the Department driving this. Mr. O'Sullivan made a point about having only three full-time vacant home officers in all 31 local authorities. This is my second year as a Deputy but I was a councillor for 12 years. For 12 years I and other Sinn Féin councillors were beating this drum. This morning, as I came to the train station to come up here, I passed properties that have been derelict and vacant for some time. There is a difference between dereliction and vacancy. The chances are that vacant properties can be turned around much more quickly and actually turned into housing or community hubs, whereas derelict properties need a lot of work. This morning I passed various properties that have been derelict and vacant for over 20 years, some 30 years. Ten years ago I walked through these areas with the then Cork City Council manager, and ten years later I drive through those areas and am astounded that today we have no one in the Department working solely on this. What I would say to the Department and the Minister, and it is a message that should come out loud and clear from this committee, is that there should be a section put aside to deal with dereliction and vacancy to ensure that the local authorities are doing their job. This is not aimed at Mr. O'Sullivan; it is aimed at Government policy and the Ministers involved. Mr. O'Sullivan is trying to do ten jobs, and that is not fair on him or other people in the Department. We need someone to deal with this as a stand-alone issue. We know ourselves that if we are to solve the housing crisis, dereliction and vacant properties and turning them into homes will not solve the crisis but will play a part.

I refer to the damage that dereliction does to the communities I represent. There are five schools in one of the areas I represent that is blighted by dereliction and vacancy. No one seems to give a damn. Let us call a spade a spade. The Department has done nothing to assure local authorities. We have a derelict sites levy that is not being collected by local authorities. Some local authorities are not even applying it and other local authorities are not collecting it, and the Department is doing nothing.

I have a question about the derelict sites levy and why it is not being collected. Has a decision been taken at Government, Department or local authority level not to collect it? If not, why is the Department not driving local authorities to do what they are legally supposed to be doing?

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