Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

What we are trying to achieve here is that we want every local authority to have an online derelict sites register. I can see absolutely no reason in this day and age that they would not have that online register. It is absolutely ridiculous as far as I am concerned. Part of that online register would include the outstanding levies and how long this building has been on the register. When a building has been on the derelict sites register for more than two years, it means that the person has not taken action. Currently, action is required within a month but we extended the timeframe to six months because what we do not want is a simple slap of paint and a boarded up window that is done in a month - job done and it is off the register. That is not what we want. We recognise there can be significant works required so there is six months.

After the property has been on the register for more than two years, under section 6 we have that where a property has been on the register for a period of two years, the local authority must notify the Minister. Therefore the Minister and the Department, or the officials, have a rolling register of how many derelict sites are out there. The Deputy mentioned earlier about not being able to introduce a cost to the Exchequer. When I originally drafted this Bill, it was to introduce a derelict sites tax because a tax would be a much more effective measure, as I have said before. It is very easy to ignore a local authority envelope falling through the door but it is not so easy to ignore a Revenue envelope falling through the door. As the levies are low and it does not mean levies are not being levied on those buildings; it is just that somebody is not paying them and they can accumulate for ten or 20 years. It does absolutely nothing to stimulate the use of that building so originally I wanted this to be a tax. Does the Deputy think two years is too short a period for the Minister to be notified? The Minister would then have an idea of how much dereliction is in each county and could instruct the local authorities to CPO those sites.