Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with my colleague. In particular, under the derelict sites initiative for towns and the Tidy Towns committees for which she has responsibility, funding has been very well spent by the committees. They are frustrated by derelict buildings. Even though I say this against my own local authority, it had an opportunity to buy houses recently from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, but did not deliver. It is probably one of the worst counties in the country. We have to judge the local authorities. The Minister provided funding and they have to be judged on what they do with derelict sites. Mayo County Council did three but I am open to correction on that. It talks a great deal about derelict sites and everything else but it does not deliver on them. We need to get these derelict sites out of towns. It is not fair on businesses that are trying to keep their properties up and running, repainting them and looking after them. It is not fair to have a vacant site beside them for 20 years with nothing done about it. There is now an opportunity to buy some of these vacant sites. I hope the council will. It needs to start using the Derelict Sites Act 1990 more. That Act is there and the powers are there.

See this speech in context