Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Second, when we considered this matter in the committee, we heard a really good presentation from an academic in UCD who spoke at length about the Scottish model. The reason I raise this is that two things they seem to do particularly well in Scotland are that they not only have an accurate database of the number of vacant properties, but they also have a very good categorisation system so they do not throw around different numbers around the number of units. They are able to categorise at a local level not only whether a property is vacant or derelict, but also its categorisation. How will the analysis of vacant and derelict lands referred to in the Government amendments be done? What tools will be available to local authorities to ensure they have accurate data?

When the Minister was last before the committee to discuss this issue towards the end of last year, he or one of his officials indicated that the Department was undertaking an audit of vacant and derelict property which was to be ready at the end of last year or early this year. It would be useful if the Minister of State could give the committee an update on that because this is valuable but only if the data and tools are available to the local authorities to be able to produce meaningful analysis.