Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

The Minister will be aware that I have given a broad welcome to the idea that the living city initiative be extended to cover, for example, Drogheda and Dundalk in my own constituency. I have brought a number of amendments over successive Committee Stages of various Finance Bills to try to achieve that objective. It is a positive way in which we can address vacancy and dereliction. The Minister will know well that the initial scheme was introduced in the early 2010s and only came into effect in about 2015, having spent quite a considerable amount of time being examined by the European Commission in terms of state aid rules and so on.

The number of changes the Minister proposed to the scheme are very positive in terms of the inclusion of properties that are dated prior to 1975. There are various other changes proposed to the scheme that will have a positive impact. Local authorities will now be required to develop and map special regeneration zones - areas in which the scheme will be applicable. It makes sense where there are business improvement district schemes that local authorities would actually use those particular areas and have them readily available. If that could be used to expedite the implementation of the scheme in areas like Drogheda and Dundalk, that would be useful.

Insofar as I can recollect, I think most, if not all, of the areas that will now be covered in terms of this new iteration of the scheme have business improvement district schemes. I was involved in getting the one in my own hometown up and running a number of years ago. It may be the case that some of the local authorities have already been in touch with the Department to urge that approach. Vacancy and dereliction are an absolute scourge. They are a real problem and I could speak at length about some of the things we need to do to address the issue.

On a related matter, I welcome the decision to move the derelict sites levy to what will now be a derelict sites tax that is capable of being collected by the Revenue Commissioners. It is related to this overall question of vacancy and dereliction.

I would like to see Revenue collecting the proposed new derelict sites tax as early as possible. If it is in order, the Minister might comment on his plans in that regard. To the best of my recollection, he will be required to introduce a series of statutory instruments once the special regeneration areas have been mapped in order to ensure that the scheme can become operational.

Two questions arise. First, when does the Minister expect the scheme to come into operation and when will he be in a position to sign those statutory instruments. Second, will the Minister provide an update - or his best guess at least - as to when Revenue will be in a position to start collecting the derelict sites tax? I know there is an amount of work to be done in preparation. Ideally, it should be up and running as soon as possible. I have always made the point that local authorities and their demands around the derelict sites levies are simply ignored. Their attempts to collect some of these levies are frustrated. For those people who are wealthy enough to allow a building to become vacant or derelict and not sweat the asset, the only language they understand is a letter from the Revenue making a demand. If they are not tax compliant, they cannot operate their businesses. This is an extremely positive initiative that we have been calling on for years. The two areas are in a way connected.