John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)

It is certainly my expectation that the report will be published this month. That is what my officials advise me.

Local authorities have a role in pursuing the owners of vacant and derelict properties. They can issue notices and where those notices are not acted upon, the properties are included on the register and levies are applied. The Deputy will be aware that in yesterday's budget announcement, a derelict property tax was announced by the Minister for Finance. I have engaged with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, on this. Local authorities will have a role to play in identifying all those properties and ensuring we have an accurate register of the number of derelict properties so they can be levied and those levies can be collected by Revenue. As I said yesterday, we have had a whole suite of responses. I sat on the Oireachtas joint committee and the Deputy knows about many of the positive schemes that are in place. However, if the carrot is not used, the stick that is the tax is coming and it is coming quickly.

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