Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Central Statistics Office, CSO, told us that, in 2021, there were 166,000 vacant properties in the State. The response of the Government was to introduce a levy of 0.3%. In the middle of a housing crisis, with the eviction ban ending on 1 April and a tsunami of homelessness coming at us for the summer, that was the plan. It is not good enough. The Minister of State failed to address this in his response. I hope he answers my next question.

The Derelict Sites Act has been in existence for 32 years, yet the Minister and Department are not enforcing it. How is that possible given we could be in the middle of a housing emergency and people are becoming homeless? When the ban on evictions was in place, homeless figures went up. We are now looking at a tsunami on 1 April. It is not good enough. More needs to be done. We need to start compulsorily purchasing derelict and vacant sites as soon as possible.

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