Mr. Richard Shakespeare:

I thank the Chairman and the members of the committee for inviting the city council to present to them. I am joined by my colleagues, Mr. Dave Dinnigan, Mr. Paul Clegg and Mr. John O'Hara.

Ongoing urban regeneration has been a central feature of city council policy in response to the widespread dereliction of the 1980s. With the help of the Urban Renewal Act 1986 and other incentives, there have been notable urban renewal and regeneration successes, including the Dublin docklands, the new Grangegorman campus and many more smaller interventions. This has enabled the population of the inner city between the canals to increase by more than 50,000, bringing increased vitality to this part of the city. In accordance with both the national planning framework and regional policy, the city council continues to be proactively engaged in the ongoing regeneration of the city in respect of vacant sites and infill development. The new draft city development plan, currently on public display, sets out a core strategy for the successful growth of our capital city over the next six years and beyond. By 2028 the city council must provide for an increase in population of approximately 35,000 people. The achievement of the core strategy requires a proactive commitment to urban regeneration at all levels in the city. In addition, the draft development plan has identified the need for strategic regeneration plans for Dublin Industrial Estate and the Naas Road and Ballyfermot areas as part of the City Edge Project, which is a collaborative project between the city council and South Dublin County Council. At a more local level, the development plan seeks the regeneration of brownfield sites throughout the city, including vacant and underused sites with the potential for infill housing, mews lanes and vacant upper floors. The regeneration of the inner city will be greatly enhanced by recent urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, funding for both the north and south inner city concept areas, totalling approximately €170 million.

Having set out the context of urban regeneration policy in the city, I now propose to address the more specific issues that the committee requested we address. The working definition of "residential vacancy" used by the city council is a home that is not occupied and has remained so for longer than six months and is not currently marketed for sale or rent by the owner. There are many reasons a property may be vacant, including legal disputes relating to title or wards of court. The city council is tasked by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to implement a vacant homes action plan. In response to this requirement and the actions outlined in Rebuilding Ireland under pillar 5, the city council has appointed a vacant homes officer and initiated early actions to identify and return to use vacant homes in its administrative area. This includes the active deployment and promotion of the two main market interventions available, that is, the repair and lease scheme, and the buy and renew scheme.

In 2017 the city council undertook a pilot street survey to test a methodology for identifying vacant homes in four electoral divisions. A total of 213 potentially vacant homes were identified. Of those, just 49 were confirmed as vacant by neighbours or non-occupants, with 16 being confirmed as vacant long term. Of those 16, 13 were determined unsuitable for either of the incentive schemes, leaving three homes remaining that may be suitable. The survey was used to form a realistic view of long-term residential vacancy and helped diffuse the assumptions that there were over 30,000 vacant units in the city as per Central Statistics Office data. Survey results show that Dublin's vacancy is nuanced and often conflated with availability and non-occupancy. In short, the survey shows that there is no "low-hanging fruit" for residential dwellings in Dublin that are vacant and available for use as social houses. It is understood that the CSO plans to deploy an enhanced approach during the next census to residential properties that appear to be vacant and Revenue will obtain useful information about vacant residential property from the local property tax revaluation. Coupled together, these data should provide a more realistic picture of residential vacancy in the city.

The repair and lease scheme allows owners of private properties to avail of interest-free State loans to refurbish a property to private rented standards and, in return, lease it as housing stock. While initial public interest in the scheme was encouraging, once the details of the scheme were published interest declined. Eleven applications were received, with only two completing. The buy and renew scheme allows the city council to acquire long-term vacant property from private owners at a current market valuation and then refurbish it and return it to use as housing stock in a timely manner. The city council has acquired 68 properties, of which 41 have been refurbished and returned to housing stock. An additional 27 properties are undergoing refurbishment works and near completion, and there are plans to bring an additional 99 into the housing stock over the coming years.

The city council established an active land management unit in 2016 to provide a more proactive approach to targeting underutilised, vacant and derelict lands and buildings in the city area. The public's view of what constitutes a derelict site can be very varied and is not always in accordance with the legislative definition set out in the Derelict Sites Act 1990. For a site to be determined to be derelict, it must meet the criteria set out in the Act. In our experience, dereliction arises where there are title difficulties, probate issues, owners with personal difficulties, a lack of finances, and companies in liquidation. The council's approach, therefore, is to engage actively with owners with a view to agreeing with them what works are required to prevent a property from becoming or remaining derelict.

The council, through the effective exercise of the legislative provisions in the Derelict Sites Act 1990, proactively strives to achieve the eradication of dereliction in the city and the return of derelict sites to active use. The council has had an ongoing acquisition strategy since 2017 but will only acquire compulsorily as a last resort.

The number of derelict sites acquired compulsorily is just part of the story. The council's experience is that, in the face of compulsory acquisition, some sites have been rendered non-derelict and removed from the derelict sites register; owners may be actively seeking planning permission or have obtained planning permission for redevelopment; and derelict sites may have been placed on the market and are at varying stages in the sales process, which offers the prospect that they will be redeveloped and returned to active use.

The vacant sites register was established under the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015. The Act aims to bring vacant land in urban areas into use. Since January 2019, sites that meet the vacant site criteria outlined in the Act and entered on the register for one calendar year are subject to a levy. The levy currently stands at 7% of the market value of the property. There is no interest payable on unpaid levies. It is worth noting that the Act provides for appeals at every step of the process, which has the effect of slowing down entry in the register and applying the levy.

The city council uses its compulsory acquisition powers as part of its active land management strategy. Recent CPOs include those concerning the Abbey Street Lower–Abbey Theatre redevelopment, Emmet Road, Ryder's Row and Main Street in Chapelizod.

Once again, many thanks for allowing me to present this afternoon. My colleagues and I can expand on the issues if requested.