Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In fairness to the family, and in fairness to Cork County Council as well, there has been a lot of to and fro. I understand that when there is a notice served, and so on and so forth, there are time limits on this but there seems to be a gap in trying to find out who actually owns that property. Surely there is a land register there. For these families, I know what it is like because there is no roof on it. With whatever water is going in, there is dampness and it is going into the buildings on either side. They are right. A lot of the buildings in Youghal have massive historic value. Many people do not even know that Youghal was a walled town. There are still parts of that wall there. There is history there, and the people of Youghal are proud of that.

Certainly, the timeframe is a very important one and it needs to go back to the family that there is a timeframe. I do not know if it requires a compulsory purchase order to take that property over if it is derelict, under the grounds of health and safety, to rectify the concerns. We saw it a couple of years ago in Cork city. On three occasions, buildings were neglected but it was too late and they fell down. Unfortunately, there was a young lady killed there a number of years ago as well. I would be interested to see what Cork County Council will come back with as to what the plan is. It is certainly more urgent now. They have been contacting an awful lot of Departments there and I think that, probably, the Youghal municipal council could have a part to play as well. I would like to follow that up and try to keep that going because we are coming into another winter now. It does not enhance the chances of what is left of that building staying up. I thank the Chair.