Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister. It is very positive to hear his commitment in this area. When I am in my constituency going door to door, I come across well-built homes that have been empty for 20 or 30 years. I appreciate there are complexities around why that happens but it is not a situation that can be tolerated. It should not be tolerated under any circumstances but with the gravity of the housing crisis we have, there is no justification for it.

When I started my first election campaign to my local council and was campaigning in my local community, I was knocking around areas in which people were pointing at derelict houses, boarded up badly with corrugated iron and grass growing out of the roof, that had been empty for years. People were telling me they were owned by the local authority. I thought it could not be true that the worst, most derelict homes in the area were owned by the local authority. It turned out they were, and that the four had been empty for a collective period of approximately 60 years. I got that changed as a local councillor and they were put back into use a few years later. Families are now living there and they have been put to great use. However, it shows the institutional attitude around this in the past that the worst offender in a community as regards dereliction was actually a local authority. That has changed and it is welcome.

There is a lot that we need to do on this. The issue does not stop here. Compulsory sales orders are a very good idea. A streamlined CPO process needs to be done. It is very long and complex and there are proposals from the Law Reform Commission that need to be implemented. I urge the Minister, who clearly is committed on this, that when he does encounter difficulties, challenges and complexities during the implementation of the process, to hold firm as it is so important.