James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I am very familiar with the streets of Dublin and the streets of Cork. The Deputy might have noticed while walking the streets of Cork himself the extraordinary amount of money and regeneration going on in Cork city as a result of Government investment into it.

If it was the case that compulsory purchase orders were that difficult, we would see a consistent problem with them across the State. However, some local authorities are using them to very effective use, while others are not. That tells me that local authorities have different priorities. Some are using their priorities to target compulsory purchase orders to tackle dereliction and some are not. We have decided to now bring in the Revenue Commissioners to target dereliction. As far as I am concerned, dereliction is antisocial behaviour. Anyone who has a derelict property and is not doing anything with it is little more than a rent seeker. I do not care whether you are left wing or right wing; nobody can justify that kind of rent seeking because those properties are going up in value as the State invests money and as people invest money around it. I am determined to tackle dereliction and those who hold onto properties that are derelict. Giving power to the Revenue Commissioners is crucial to that.

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