Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are cases where an owner is in dispute, which can involve a city council. In the case of the Iveagh Trust, there were three supposed owners contesting ownership which meant that the protected structure became more dilapidated and endangered. I understand what the Minister of State said in terms of an owner being those who occupy something, but the only occupier was a security man who got some type of stipend from one or other of the owners. Part of the difficulty when there is a dispute - in this case a long and protracted one - is that while that is ongoing the protected structure can be damaged by the weather, as well as there sometimes being malicious damage. That is why the city council was forced by its councillors to step in and exert, beyond the courts, ownership and, in time, leave the courts aside.

That has not always been the case. Local authorities are not as eager to get involved to protect structures. That is one of the problems we have had up and down the country over years. Perhaps this Bill will ensure that local authorities will also understand their duties and role in ensuring the protection of buildings so that they take action a lot more quickly to ensure tiles do not move off a roof and allow water to enter a building and destroy it, as has happened in many cases in this city, in particular in the 1960s and 1970s. As I said, that is happening in other areas as we speak because once some buildings are granted protected status, the owners are sometimes not happy. The vast majority of owners are delighted to have protected structure status because they value the property they have. I am still unsure, if this is not stated as explicitly as we wanted, how we can ensure all owners, including those based offshore, can be forced to take the measures required to protect structures.