Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I have some comments. Can he say when the review will be complete? This is really urgent. There is a mismatch between the register and the directory. There is no doubt about that. Nobody can say that the Derelict Sites Act is working. We know from looking around us in our own home areas that dereliction is creating significant social and economic scars in our town centres. Looking at the figures, my own home town of Drogheda accounts for approximately 1% of all vacant homes in the entire country. Dereliction is a massive problem. I give credit to groups such as Derelict Drogheda that are sequentially cataloguing some of these problems and issues. It shames us all that we do not have a defined route and plan to bring properties of this kind back into use and to prioritise them for housing. I know the Minister of State is working on his town centres first initiative. I am interested to see what his plans are and how the Derelict Sites Act can be changed to ensure that it has some utility in bringing homes into use. We must ensure that local authorities use that Act in a better fashion than at present.

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