Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I have long been speaking about the devastating effects of dereliction and vacant housing on our towns and cities and the potential they hold in addressing the devastating housing crisis in this country. I have, in the past, called for a public housing programme led by local authorities, with a view to addressing dereliction and vacant housing, and I wish to call for this again. In my constituency of Donegal, 7,700 houses are vacant. That is about 10% of the overall housing stock in the county, which is a shocking percentage. At the same time, there are 2,646 families on the housing list in the county. If we were to truly and properly invest in vacant housing we would be able to house those families almost three times over. It seems like the most logical solution to the problem, yet this Government fails to take necessary action on it. Instead it does nothing to address the long housing lists or to address the fact that both the housing and rental markets have spiralled completely out of control. It will also do nothing about the fact that as of February of this year, 2,667 children in this country were in emergency accommodation. This is something that should cause us great shame and that should drive us to immediate action. It should not paralyse us into complete inaction and uselessness, which seems to be the effect it has had on the three Government parties

. Something needs to change. We need to move away from failed Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil housing policies. A new approach is needed fast. We need the introduction of at least a 10% tax on vacant and derelict properties and the Derelict Sites Act 1990 should be used properly to activate vacant or unused sites around the country. One of the problems is that most property owned in towns and villages around the country is owned by people with no tax liabilities. There is a constant focus on tax breaks in order to encourage the development of these properties but this completely fails because they are all owned by elderly people who do not have a tax liability and who will not benefit from them in the first place. The derelict sites levy and the Derelict Sites Act 1990 are woefully underused and have clearly not been effective.

At the beginning of the year it was revealed that almost €20 million in vacant and derelict site levies owed to Dublin City Council remained outstanding. This is an incredible amount and it demonstrates the amount owed in Dublin alone. Can the Minister of State imagine how much would be owed nationwide? This is especially because the total number of vacant properties in the northern and western region amounted to more than 44,000 properties, with an incredible 72% of towns and villages in this region recording a residential vacancy rate above the national average. In County Donegal in 2020, Bundoran, Ballybofey, Stranorlar, Donegal town, Glenties, Killybegs and Letterkenny all recorded above-average residential vacancy and dereliction rates, with a total of 366 residential dwellings classified as either vacant or derelict in Letterkenny alone.

This just shows how ineffective the Derelict Sites Act 1990 and the derelict sites levy have been and far more needs to be done to address this. In the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s Housing for All plan, there were suggestions that there may be a vacant property tax in the future. This housing crisis cannot wait. We cannot continue to kick the can down the road in the hope that one day, things will get better when we have been given every indication that things will only get worse. It is time to take decisive action on this untapped supply of housing. Drastic measures are needed. The Government’s wishy-washy Housing for All promises are not enough. A vacant property tax must be introduced and must include all property, including commercial property. As Dr. Rory Hearne has stated:

Policy half-measures will not suffice ... Owners of derelict and vacant property can no longer be allowed to leave it unused. Use it, or lose it.

That is his mantra. Once again the public seem to be far ahead of the Government on this one. It is time that their calls were listened to and that the hidden dereliction crisis is addressed. We can no longer justify such high levels of homelessness and hidden homelessness while thousands of houses lie empty.

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