Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am not planning to use them all. Do not worry. I just wanted to clarify we have 15 minutes.

Something interesting has come to my attention about the census. Given the scale of the housing crisis in this country, there has quite correctly been a focus for quite some time, extending to years, on the question of vacant and derelict properties in the country. Many people, including me, have for some time been asking that as part of trying to address that crisis we identify the number of vacant and derelict properties. Many Deputies have time and again cited the number of such properties in their own areas, towns and villages, along with their frustration and that of the people that these properties are not being used to house people affected by the housing crisis.

I have learned something because a person has been communicating with my office and the CSO. In the previous census, in 2016, the CSO did not do any count of derelict properties. It did a count of vacant properties and the figures were fairly eye-watering, identifying 183,312 such properties. It is a pretty staggering number and if even a reasonable portion of them could be quickly turned around, refurbished and made available to people affected by the housing crisis, it would have a very significant impact on it. What is apparent from the correspondence I have received from this person, who is communicating with me and the CSO, is that eye-watering figure of vacant properties did not include derelict properties. That means there is a very significant number beyond that of derelict properties that could also potentially be used for housing.

A note from the CSO indicates dwellings under construction and derelict properties were not included in the count of vacant dwellings, and as a result empty housing units were classed as a vacant house, vacant apartment or holiday home only if the dwelling was considered fit for habitation by the enumerator. In the case of newly constructed buildings, this meant the roof, doors, windows and walls had to be completely built or installed and for older dwellings that were unoccupied, the roof, doors and windows had to be fully intact.

We can think about this even with the most cursory walk down the streets of Dublin or anybody's town or village. We can imagine many of the older buildings with a broken window or a door or window boarded up that were not counted in the 2016 census, despite that census identifying an absolutely staggering 183,000 vacant units. It was apparent in yesterday's Oireachtas committee meeting when Dublin City Council officials were questioned on the matter that they did not have a clue. The biggest local authority in the country has no clue about derelict properties in Dublin city. It has done one walk-around survey of approximately 45 properties in 2015 and that was it. There is no working definition of derelict properties.

I ask the Minister of State to take this very seriously. It is a matter of urgency for us to identify the housing stock that could potentially be useful for addressing the incredibly severe housing crisis we are now facing. We need a working definition and absolute certainty that derelict properties will be included in the census to be conducted in 2022. Frankly, local authorities should be instructed before that to have an operating definition of derelictions and should have a systematic and scientific approach to identifying them even before that because it is an absolute scandal there are so many vacant and derelict buildings. We cannot even begin that work unless we have a clear definition of what a derelict site is and the properties are being counted.

See this speech in context