Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Finance for small sites and particularly infill sites can be quite complicated because there can be many difficulties, as Dublin City Council found out recently when it looked at a particular site in the city centre.

I am sorry I raced through my initial answer which contained considerable detail. There are 360 sites on the local registers. More than €400 million worth of land is under levy. The new 7% rate that I brought in is now in effect, which means that over the two-year period it is a 10% levy on the value of that site. It is worth noting that 42 sites have come off the register since it was first compiled because construction has commenced, and been completed in some instances, on those sites. That shows it is successful, with 42 sites out of 360 sites actually seeing construction and having construction completed because the levy was applied to that vacant site. Many more sites would be on the register were it not for our decision to introduce the levy and to more than double it in the course of this year.

I am reviewing the reports and the Deputy is right that it is a different picture in different local authorities. That is why we will help the local authorities that need that help. I still believe the local authorities are best placed with their local knowledge to compile and maintain their registers of those sites in their own functional areas.

See this speech in context