Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the two chief executives and their teams for coming before the committee today. Most of them are no strangers to me. They are welcome. I always make the point that witnesses before the committee are our guests. They have been invited here as part of a process of engagement. I acknowledge this and thank them for coming.

My questions will focus on Dublin City Council. I thank Mr. Keegan for his concise paper. I have a number of questions arising from it. How many people are on the social housing list today? It is difficult to get details on this. I want to spend the rest of my time focusing on vacancy and dereliction. This is referenced in the fourth paragraph of the written submission to the committee. Does Mr. Keegan believe that local authorities should have powers, or additional powers, to deal with long-term vacant housing units that are neither derelict nor a site? If so, will he elaborate? I am picking up this point from what is in the submission and what has been said.

We know that various interventions are available to deal with vacancy and dereliction. There is the repair-and-lease scheme, the buy-and-renew scheme and the Living City initiative. All of these provide support for citizens. More importantly, they provide supports for local authorities in bringing derelict and vacant sites back into use. Mr. Keegan stated that in the past the buy-and-renew scheme proved the most popular and effective. He also stated that there are problems due to delays in the recouping of the capital outlays associated with the Living City initiative and the repair-and-lease scheme. Will he give the committee some examples of the issues he has identified with the two schemes?

The use of vacant commercial and retail units for housing has been investigated by Dublin City Council. These conversions can create major difficulties with regard to planning, retrospective issues and compliance with building regulations. Will the witnesses from Dublin City Council touch on this and suggest to the committee how we can overcome these challenges?

According to the submission document Dublin City Council has identified approximately 650 vacant homes with potential for redevelopment and to date 48 have been redeveloped and returned to use. I would like more detail on how the figure of 650 was arrived at. Are any of the properties in the ownership of Dublin City Council? I do not have the exact number but I am told that a number of derelict properties are in the ownership of Dublin City Council. I am not sure whether they are on the derelict sites register. Will the witnesses confirm this?

When we look at the audited reports of all 31 local authorities, we see constant criticism of how the property assets register balances. In addition, there are issues about how local authorities handle their commercial and residential real estate. According to Dublin City Council, it has 77 sites on the derelict sites register. Do any of the properties belong to Dublin City Council? What action is it taking? I would have thought it would be a key priority for a local authority if it had derelict properties. These are just a few questions that might be addressed. They are specifically focused and targeted towards Dublin City Council.