Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious there is often criticism of local authorities but, from my experience, they are doing fantastic work out there, particularly in areas of planning and active transport. I give the example of local authorities which have a county architect, someone who is able to oversee these projects from above and see how all of these parts work together. That is one of the additional officers I would like to see added to every local authority along with a vacant homes officer. A county architect would be one of the most beneficial posts we could create which could pull all those different divisions together, that is, active transport and the ability to try to find building owners. The big disincentive is that we just do not know who owns the buildings or the derelict sites. It is too big a task to chase that down, so it just gets left and ignored. That exists throughout all of the local authorities. I am hoping the vacant homes officers would take this suggestion on board also.