Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I am glad he referenced the Derelict Sites Act because it needs to be addressed. I have introduced a Private Members' Bill to address the issues involved and I hope it will be considered by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

It is the taxation aspect of it that I am interested in, which is the responsibility of the Department of Finance. I am delighted to see work is in progress but this work needs to be expedited.

We have a housing crisis and there is no doubt about it. That has been well documented and much commented on lately. I see tackling dereliction and vacancy as an opportunity to bring life and living back into town centres, as well as addressing people's housing and accommodation needs. We have a derelict sites levy in place. In 2021, over €5 million worth of levies were issued but only €378,000 was collected by the local authorities. This levy is not functioning properly at local authority level, with less than 10% of what is owed being collected. That is why I suggest we introduce a tax rather than a levy, to be collected by the Revenue Commissioners. People pay attention to Revenue; they may not pay attention to the local authorities.

See this speech in context