Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Before I close, on behalf of my colleagues and everyone else in the House, I thank all of the staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas for the incredible work they do. I mean everyone, from the restaurant staff to the porters, from the ushers to IT staff, from facilities staff to those in the Bills Office and the secretariat. Without their work, we could not do our work, and it is important to acknowledge that before we finish.

It is always good when a Deputy introduces a Private Members' Bill to hear the words "Not opposed", because it means there is a pathway forward, although I acknowledge some of the concerns that the Minister of State raised.

Regarding the Derelict Sites Act, the derelict sites levy is not working. We have the figures, so we know the levies that are applied and the collection rates in local authority areas. I believe it probably runs at less than 10%. People will say that the levy accrues on the site, so when the building is sold on, the levy will be paid on, but that does nothing for the street on which that derelict building exists. I know I cannot introduce a tax via a Private Members' Bill, as that is something for the Minister for Finance to do, but if this charge were to be a tax rather than a levy, we would get a greater reaction. This is not to say that our initial action on an empty or derelict building should be to lash a tax on it. Rather, it should be to engage. The Minister of State acknowledged this and we have put many measures in place to encourage engagement, for example, vacant homes officers and the range of grants, subsidies and supports that I listed at the beginning of the debate and that the Minister of State echoed.

Regarding the concerns raised, I will reiterate that there would be no relaxation or reduction in standards under this Bill. We are all concerned about fire safety, in which respect there must be no diminution in standards. Under this Bill, there would be the same detailed scrutiny, assessment and interrogation of the drawings of an application as happens currently at separate stages, but it would all be done in a single process. I realise that, as the Minister of State pointed out, trying to do this would put resourcing pressures on local authorities. While all of these steps are already taken within the local authority, they are taken at separate times and through separate processes. It is a question of trying to bring the three processes together so that someone applying with the intention of bringing a building back into use will see a quick turnaround. In order to do that, the applicant would still have to adhere to the building regulations and the good and strict standards that we have in place. The people scrutinising the application would be highly qualified and have expertise in the matter. As set out in section 11 of the Building Control Act, the Minister can appoint such people.

I referred to the technical guidance documents. I believe there are approximately 12 of them and many of them have to be waded through in order to undertake a simple change of use or refurbishment - Part B on fire regulations, Part M on accessibility, Part L on energy, Part K on stairways, Part J on energy and heat, and Part E on sound.

The good thing about introducing legislation is that we have various Stages. After this Stage, we will undertake detailed scrutiny, hopefully at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, where we can tease out concerns and meet the challenge that we are all united behind. Everyone who has spoken has agreed that this is something we must do.

The Bill would not reduce standards. Its purpose is to make the process a little simpler. We have put the financial encouragements in place and, through the vacant homes tax, we have applied a bit of a stick. If we were to introduce a derelict sites tax, it would be another stick. However, we cannot provide funding and force people to do something only to leave them trying to wade through an onerous process. That would be fair. To complement everything we are trying to do, I want to streamline the process by bringing it from three separate processes into a single one.

With that, I thank the Minister of State and the Chair.

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