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

The Minister of State mentioned that the tackling of vacancy and dereliction is a priority or something the Department was going to address. Let me mention some of the figures that came out recently. There are 1,913 buildings on the derelict sites register, and there is €20 million outstanding in uncollected levies, almost €5 million of which relates to Cork. Local authorities are not doing their job. The Minister of State and his Department, led by the Minister, are not doing their job to ensure local authorities put derelict buildings on the derelict sites register and then impose a levy on them.

The Minister of State touched on CPOs. Only 82 properties were subject to a CPO last year. Thirteen local authorities have had no levy. These are not my figures; these are the actual figures.

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