Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In 2021, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, set up a review of the Derelict Sites Act. In my view, the Act is being brought into disrepute on a daily basis. It is a charter for rogue property owners to evade their social responsibilities. Three years on, we are still waiting for the Minister, Deputy O’Brien’s, review to be published. While we wait for that report, the cancer of dereliction - that is what it is - is destroying places like Drogheda.

It is an insidious thing occurring all around the town. Pro-property owner laws and laissez-faireenforcement are destroying our towns. As the Taoiseach is aware, councils want to acquire properties through compulsory acquisition orders. Louth County Council has been provided with €7 million in total to compulsorily acquire properties and to work on those processes this year. That is not enough, given the scale of the problem. At my request, the Taoiseach will meet the business community in Drogheda over the next few weeks. I add that he must meet local authority members as well. Will he say on the record when the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, will publish the review of the Derelict Sites Act?

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