George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)

It is good to see Mr. Taaffe again in a different arena. My colleague, Deputy Sheehan, raised the issue of voids, which came up on the floor of the House last week. The Taoiseach effectively scolded local authorities for what he perceived as their inaction in looking for too much money and taking too long to restore properties to use. I raised the issue of dereliction and larger scale derelict sites with the Taoiseach in the House today. Some of those are not within the gift of local authorities but Mr. Taaffe will be aware of the old Wexford county hospital, for instance, which has been a dangerous derelict building for 33 years. The Hookless leisure unit has been a dangerous derelict site for 18 years and St. Kevin's Hospital, Cork city, in the Taoiseach's constituency, has been closed since 2002 and has become derelict and dangerous. The Taoiseach again pointed the finger at local authorities but it takes time to bring these issues to resolution. The Taoiseach informed me that St. Kevin's has now been acquired by the Land Development Agency for the construction of apartments or houses.

In Mr. Taaffe's view, why does it take so long to bring any action against the owners if, as he said previously, we can find them? An answer to a parliamentary question I recently submitted indicated that when properties go into receivership, they are vested with the Minister for public expenditure so they are effectively owned by the State. These are dangerous derelict sites, yet they are left to rot for many years. Do we need to beef up the legislation regarding what local authorities can achieve or do to take action against what are, as Mr. Taaffe will know from the two in Wexford I mentioned, blights on the landscape and are dangerous? This is in the current climate of requiring places close to towns, in particular, to provide accommodation, be it apartments or houses. What is required to beef that up to allow local authorities carry out that work?