Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

I live on the east side of Galway city where there has been and continues to be an awful lot of serious dereliction for a long time. There was a serious campaign by local people in respect of one site, because it became a hazard. It got dismantled but is still lying empty. That is the site of the former Corrib Great Southern Hotel and now we have the former Dawn Dairies site that is still lying derelict and is an absolute eyesore. Not to mention the fact that in the middle of a housing crisis and given the fact there are so many services that are not there for the people of the east side of Galway city, it is an outrage that this type of a site can be lying the way it is.

It is not just that. That is a symptom of a problem across the State. Where I live obviously is the place I know best and that is an indication that the living cities initiative has not worked. We need to be honest and upfront in relation to it. What we need to make sure of is that we ramp up how we deal with these sites, because of the housing crisis we are trying to deal with, but also because of the services that so many different communities simply do not have. I am talking about health services and all those kinds of things. We need to have this as a priority for the Government to look at. If the Minister is serious about tackling this kind of vacancy, we need to make sure we have all the data on vacancy and dereliction and we can at least then fully monitor exactly what is happening. As someone who campaigned heavily on the former Corrib Great Southern Hotel site, I found it was very difficult to get any information required to be able to try to push it ahead. I am worried this is something that has now become the norm and people feel that with those sites that is the way they are, rather than seeing the potential they have. We all want to live in cities that can live up to the potential they have. I wanted to say that as it is very close to my heart but also something I see in my own local area.