Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think that a CPO should ever be the first option, but it should be an option that we have if people refuse to sell or bring a property into use and sit on a derelict property for years. That is why we have the fund to do that. Some local authorities have led the way on that. Others have been far too slow.

The whole issue of vacant properties is a very interesting one. The Government published a really good vacant homes strategy not too long ago. It points out there are roughly 160,000 vacant properties - vacant homes - in the State, but as is always the case, it is much more complicated when you dig into it. A huge number of those homes - in fact, the vast majority of them - are either for sale or to let, being renovated, the people who owned them died recently, the people who own them are in hospital or nursing homes, or the people who own them cannot be traced. That takes the 160,000 figure down to actually a much smaller number, but there are still thousands of homes that are vacant that could be brought back into use. I have set out the measures we are taking to make that happen.

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