Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I raise the issue of dereliction in our cities, towns and villages. The blight of dereliction and long-term vacancy is prevalent throughout our country. According to the CSO figures for 2022, there are 163,000 derelict properties. I welcome the progress and the millions, if not billions, of euro invested nationwide clearly showing in the vacant property refurbishment grant statistics presented this week. However, I question the disparity in investment between local authorities and this needs to be addressed. I welcome the compulsory purchase orders activation programme from April 2023, which provides a planned, systematic and proactive approach by local authorities to bringing vacant and derelict properties into use when there is no successful engagement with the authorities. Again, I question whether all local authorities have been fully committed to following up on this. For example, despite there being not one but two separate Acts designed to mandate the registration of dereliction, a quick online search across multiple local authorities around the country show that these registers do not reflect the reality we see with our own eyes. If we are not recording this information, how on earth can we take the next step? How can we get these properties back into residential or commercial use? For those owners who do not co-operate with their local authorities, penalties must be increased. Let us take France as an example. A tax of 17% on the annual rental value is imposed on a property vacant for one year. This is increased to 34% in year two. We need to look at better incentives for living above the shop. There is huge untapped potential on our high streets and side streets across the country. Not only will this increase housing availability, but the knock-on effects of bringing these properties back to life will bring more footfall to our cities, towns and village centres.

Overall, dereliction can only be described as a scourge, as it is having a detrimental effect on the social fabric of our towns and villages. We need to take control of the dereliction crisis. We must ensure those vacant property owners simply use it or lose it. Dereliction should be a source of national embarrassment. We pride ourselves as a hotbed of tourism, yet we are welcoming our tourists into towns that are falling down around us. However, more importantly, we are in the middle of a housing crisis and fighting tooth and nail to build more houses while there are tens of thousands of properties standing vacant and derelict on every street corner. This is a missed opportunity and while we are in the middle of this housing crisis, we must act.

The programme for Government states, "We will continue to tackle vacancy and dereliction with enhanced compulsory purchase order (CPO) powers and an ambitious grant system." It lists several key measures to tackle this issue. We need to get moving and both empower and drive local authorities to act swiftly and decisively on this. We cannot afford to continue to take a soft approach. We need enforcement of vacant property fines and potentially increase them to give them more teeth. We can also do work to incentivise property owners to act. We need to look at the incentive packages that we have on offer and modify them to bring people with us to get these buildings back in use.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this. It gives me the opportunity to address Members on this important issue. Addressing vacancy and making efficient use of existing housing stock is a key priority of mine and this Government. To address this, a number of structures have been established, including a dedicated vacant homes unit in my Department, a full-time vacant homes officer in each local authority, and the publication of a vacant homes action plan to draw together a number of vacancy-related measures across relevant Government Departments. In March this year, the Minister, Deputy Browne, published the 2025 progress report which shows the significant progress being made in tackling vacancy and it is available on my Department's website.

A key focus in the action plan relates to the interaction with the Government’s town centre first policy approach, which was launched by my Department and the then Department of Rural and Community Development in 2022. It provides a whole-of-government policy framework to address the decline in the health of towns and supports measures to revitalise them. To drive the delivery of town centre first, dedicated town regeneration officers have been established within local authorities, supported by the national town centre first office in the Local Government Management Agency.

In addition, where local authorities find that the acquisition of particular derelict properties is an appropriate mechanism to return them to use, they are now supported through the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, which has established a €150 million revolving fund for local authorities to acquire vacant and derelict properties, be they residential or commercial, using their compulsory purchase powers where necessary, and to carry out any associated works needed to make them more attractive for reuse or sale. On completion of the most recent review of this element of the URDF programme, a total of 1,297 residential and commercial properties were approved by my Department for inclusion on the approved programmes list for all 31 local authorities.

In my role as Minister of State with responsibility for local government, I am visiting local authorities across the country, and this is one of the areas in which I am engaged extensively with executive teams and chief executives.

As Deputy Brennan rightly pointed out in his opening remarks, it is true to say some local authorities are doing really well while others have a long way to go, and that is why I am engaging with them on it. Where I have seen exceptional work done is with small, dedicated and focused teams under one directorate within a local authority that is putting an enhanced focus on this area by using the carrot and stick approach - the carrot being the likes of the repair and lease scheme and the stick being the derelict sites register and the CPO. That has yielded positive results in areas where it has been deployed. We, of course, need that consistency of approach across all local authorities in the country and that is what I am focused on as Minister of State.

My Department also introduced planning and development regulations that provide an exemption from the need to obtain planning permission for the change of use of certain vacant commercial buildings to residential units, including former pubs and above the shop living, as the Deputy referenced. The most recent authority returns from 2023 show that local authorities have received notifications of 1,065 exempted development proposals to date, with plans for the provision of 2,716 new homes nationwide. I will talk about the vacant property refurbishment grant in my follow up remarks.

Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State and welcome his action plan, which is very much needed, and the further investment. I take the Minister of State's point about the involvement of the local authority, and how important that is. If we take Arklow, the town I am from and where I have spent all my working life of 25 years, it was a vibrant town, with a port and a buzzing main street. My wife, my two kids and I walked down that main street on the Saturday before Christmas and we were the only four people there on it. It was absolutely frightening. However, I do see green shoots in the town. I see the wastewater treatment plant opening up next week. I have to give credit to the existing owners of premises who are trying to keep the main street going. What we need is support. We have got engagement in the past couple of months from the local authority, shop owners and the chamber of commerce. It is key that we link all these people together and get them to drive the town on. There are huge green shoots for the town, but the problems in Arklow are being replicated across Ireland. The heart and soul of any town is the main street. If you do not have a main street, you have nothing. The key is to try to get that moving again in Arklow. That is our goal.

We have other cases like Arklow, including Shillelagh and Camolin. As I said, it is right across the board. We need to get our teeth into this. It is a real problem. It affects the social fabric of every town if it does not have a thriving main street. I have faith in what the Minister of State is going to do, but we need action and full engagement from all the parties. If the owners of these properties are not going to use them, we have to move them on, although let us try to engage with them. There is a serious health and safety risk also as some of the premises are literally falling down. I thank the Minister of State for his time.

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Brennan. I addressed the URDF, CPO and the derelict sites register in my opening remarks. The other strand is obviously the vacant property refurbishment grant, which has been a hugely successful scheme. Towards the end of Q1 of 2025, more than 12,400 applications have been received under the scheme, with more than 8,600 approvals and 2,000 grants paid out to date, giving the owners of properties up to €70,000 in support to bring a derelict property back into productive use.

I referenced the repair and lease scheme, which has been deployed to huge success in my county of Waterford. I have seen how vacant and derelict properties on the main streets the Deputy spoke about have been converted into productive residential units for people on the social housing waiting list. We also have the THRIVE scheme, through the town centre first scheme, which is utilising ERDF EU regional development programmes to rehabilitate publicly-owned, vacant and derelict heritage buildings. That scheme has allocated more than €117 million to transformative capital projects in buildings in Cork, Galway, Waterford, Gorey and Wexford, as well as other parts of the country.

What I can say is that I am placing an increased emphasis and focus on this. I want to see all local authorities coming up to the level of the best-performing local authorities. I have seen what works and am trying to influence that as much as possible because I agree with Deputy Brennan that at a time of such need and want in terms of housing, we have to be seen to be delivering in respect of vacancy and dereliction and the quickest way to do so is to focus on the houses and buildings that are already there and that is what we are determined to do.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Bogfaimid ar aghaidh go dtí an tríú saincheist agus an Teachta James O’Connor.