Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the serious issue of dereliction in the town of Drogheda. There are more than a dozen buildings crumbling on the main thoroughfare in the centre of town. An historic building had to have a public safety notice served on it on 7 June. It caused disruption in the town centre for motorists, pedestrians, businesses, etc. The scale of dereliction in Drogheda would suck the life out of any town. People are just at their wits' end with it. The removal of the borough council from Drogheda has taken away any sort of oversight we had. There is a lack of local power and an erosion of services from the town.

When the Tánaiste spoke of dereliction, he listed a lot of schemes. The problem is, and I am saying this genuinely, in Drogheda, the derelict buildings have been derelict for decades and those schemes are not being taken up at all. They are being ignored. I detected - the Tánaiste can correct me if I am wrong - a reluctance to strengthen the Derelict Sites Act 1990. That is what needs to be done when local authority enforcement notices are being completely ignored. The only way to hit them is with severe financial penalties. Is there a reluctance to strengthen the Derelict Sites Act? If so, why? If there is no reluctance, can it be taken seriously enough? Drogheda is a large town and dereliction has sucked the life out of it.

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