Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if outstanding derelict site levies will be collected by Revenue; and whether additional funding will be provided to local authorities for collecting the register. [66120/25]

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister update the Dáil on whether outstanding derelict sites levies will be collected by Revenue and whether additional funding will be provided to local authorities for the collection of the register?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his question on derelict site levies. The introduction of a derelict property tax was announced in budget 2026 and it is intended to introduce legislation providing for the tax in the Finance Act in 2026. The tax will, when it comes into effect, replace the derelict site levy and be collected by the Revenue Commissioners. Action 4.1 of Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030 addresses the new tax measure.

Local authorities will, however, continue to have a role in the process, as updating and maintaining their derelict sites registers will continue to remain the responsibility of local authorities. Derelict site levies that remain outstanding when the new tax is introduced will remain as a charge on the properties concerned and remain the responsibility of each local authority to collect.

My Department is working on a number of measures to increase staffing levels in the local government planning sector. In this regard, my Department is collaborating with the Local Government Management Agency on the delivery of programme supports to planning authorities. These supports include the provision of staffing resources and expertise to enable planning authorities to perform their functions effectively and efficiently. Resources to ensure a focus on tackling dereliction within the local authorities have also been provided through the funding of dedicated vacant homes officers and town regeneration officers, who are working in relevant dereliction and regeneration teams to ensure a planned and a proactive approach is taken.

My Department has also made funding for staff resources available to local authorities as part of call 3 of the urban regeneration and development fund to support their work tackling vacancy and dereliction, while a total of €150 million has been provided as a revolving fund for local authorities to acquire long-term derelict properties where necessary. Since 2023, the compulsory purchase order, CPO, activation programme has also provided support to local authorities in identifying derelict properties and engaging with owners to bring those properties back into use. It includes the use of compulsory purchase powers under the Derelict Sites Act when engagement with property owners is unsuccessful, and is supported directly by my Department and the Housing Agency.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I can safely say that the Minister has just given a big spiel there, the same as the previous Minister did last year and the year before that. Nothing the Minister has outlined today will tackle dereliction. He talks about CPO activations. Local authorities will not take out CPOs because they are too complicated. They do not have the staffing, the resources or the money. I have looked at the Minister's 105- or 107-page plan. There is a paragraph on CPOs to tackle dereliction, but no funding and no resources. It is the same old, same old from the Minister.

He talks about local government, the local authorities and the planning authorities getting more staff. Why are the local authorities not tackling dereliction? I will tell you why. It is because the Minister is not giving them the staff or the money. The buck stops with him.

I will ask the Minister once more, as I asked his predecessor. I will walk the streets of Dublin with him tonight to look at the dereliction and the blight on the communities. It is not just Dublin but also Cork and towns and villages. The dereliction is everywhere. There is nothing in the Minister's housing plan to tackle it.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister has said he is giving power to the Revenue Commissioners, but when will they start collecting levies? He said he is going to keep local authorities involved. The local authorities have been keeping derelict site registers since 1990. That is 35 years. Why are we not putting a levy on today? Why are we letting land hoarders and speculators get away with destroying communities and towns by leaving spots derelict?

I had a meeting tonight with Sinn Féin members in Tipperary. They outlined to me the blight of dereliction in their communities. They have said to me that we are all talk up here and that we are not seeing it on the ground. That is what I was told today in Tipperary. I see that in Cork and I see it all around the State, and we are told we are all talk up here on the war on dereliction. Does the Minister have any grasp on reality? He says that he knows Cork and that he knows Dublin. He should hang his head in shame to walk the streets of Cork, Dublin or Limerick, or any town, and look at all the dereliction. His party has been in government for over a decade. They are the problem.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. I think he needs to work on his maths. Fianna Fáil has only been back in government since 2020, so they are-----

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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No, it was 2016.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Yes, since 2016. Confidence and supply.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Name me a Fianna Fáil Minister from that period. The Deputy cannot.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister can rub it in but-----

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy can have his spin and his guff - that is fine - but the reality is that we are taking very real action to challenge derelict sites across this country. They are a blight and they are antisocial behaviour. There is no more powerful statement to say we are tackling it than bringing in the Revenue Commissioners to ensure that anybody with a derelict property is going to face very real and serious charges. We have the 7% but the problem is that it is not being applied to derelict sites by local authorities across the country. I accept there are local authorities that are under pressure for staffing.

That is not a criticism of local authorities although you can see the significant variation between different local authorities and they are making their own priorities in terms of what they are doing. From my perspective this is a serious statement.