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

To follow up on the point made by Deputy Ó Broin about the land register, we had representatives from Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council before the joint committee on Tuesday. Next week we will have representatives from Cork City Council and Galway local authorities. In the next few weeks, we also will have representatives from other local authorities. We are going to raise the issue of vacancy and dereliction. One of the points made in this regard is that solving the issue of dereliction and vacancy is complicated because there are problems with who wants the land and the land registry. The point Deputy Ó Broin is making is that if there was an up-to-date and accurate land register, then local authorities would be able to tackle the people who own these derelict sites, thereby helping to reduce the level of dereliction and vacancy. From that perspective, therefore, as Deputy Ó Broin said, does the Minister of State think this would be a good idea?