John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Gould for raising this important issue. I know he is passionate about it, as am I. We sat on the joint committee together previously.

This is an issue that the Deputy raises consistently. Both the Minister, Deputy Browne, and I are committed to ensuring that it is addressed. We are reviewing the implementation of the Derelict Sites Act through engagement with local authorities. As the Deputy knows, the Act imposes a general duty on every owner and occupier of land to take all reasonable steps to ensure that land does not become or continue to be a derelict site as defined in the Act. The Act imposes a duty on local authorities to take all reasonable steps, including the exercise of appropriate statutory powers, to ensure that any land within their functional area does not become or continue to be derelict.

Each local authority maintains a derelict sites register under section 8 of the Act for sites which they consider to be derelict. Sites entered on the derelict sites register are subject to an annual derelict sites levy of 7% of market value, which will continue to apply until the site is rendered non-derelict. This is an increase from the previous 3%, as the Deputy knows. Local authorities are required to submit an annual return to my Department, providing information on the operation of the operation of the Derelict Sites Act 1990 in their functional area. The derelict sites returns are collated in quarter 2 of the following year. A total of 1,913 sites were listed on local authority registers as of 31 December 2023. In conjunction with local authorities, my Department is engaged in the process of collating the 2024 figures. We have written to all local authorities, reminding them of their obligation to submit their year-end data for 2024. As yet, we do not have all that data collated.

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