Mr. Frank Curran:

We would be very proactive in terms of bringing our own sites back into use and identifying them for housing and other purposes. The derelict sites register currently has ten properties. A big effort has been put in since the end of 2019, when there were 22 such sites. A team was put in place to deal with this and of those ten, none of which is a local authority property, three have recently been sold and we expect works to start shortly, two have applied for planning permission, and one is a hardship case and we are working with the HSE in that regard. In addition, the team has been very successful in collecting levies and issuing notices, in many cases multiple notices. During the period I mentioned, and in 2020 and 2021 in particular, the council obtained more in levies than in the previous ten years, some €77,000 in 2021 and €171,000 in 2020.