Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This recommendation is simple. It proposes that the promised report on a vacant and derelict property tax be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and not just Dáil Éireann. As a matter of good practice when reports like this are produced they should be presented to all Members of the Oireachtas.

Senators may remember that in February last I seconded the Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill as proposed by my Civil Engagement group and Green Party colleague, Senator Grace O'Sullivan. That Bill sought to bring forward such a measure. It is well recognised and well rehearsed that we are in the midst of a catastrophic housing crisis. Nationwide there are families living in bed and breakfast accommodation and in hubs, and young people sofa surfing. There are men and women who have spent all of their adult lives in homeless hostels or emergency shelters and these have become the only homes that such women and men know. At the end of October 2017, there were 8,374 men, women and children in emergency accommodation across the country. Rough sleeping in Cork increased ninefold in the four years from 2011 to 2015, from 38 to 345 people.

This extraordinary housing crisis requires an extraordinary response and it is good to see that we are getting a report on a tax on vacant property and I hope that such a measure is introduced. It is sensible policy interventions like this that will change how land owners view and treat vacant property. The 2016 census revealed that we have 198,358 vacant housing units, excluding holiday homes and derelict buildings. I live very close to the city centre in Cork and the only use of vacant and derelict sites that I see is of doorways where people bed down in desperation on wet and windy nights, such as those we have had in the past week. It is not good enough that we have homes, houses and offices empty when people are dying outside. Last Thursday a woman died at the back of a hotel in Cork city. She was 42 years old. I went to her funeral on Saturday. It was a tragic, pitiful and preventable affair. The Government needs to take this seriously, not just for Christmas or because we have people singing outside. That woman's aunt died on the streets a number of years ago and her cousin, whom I met and know, a woman who is the same age as my own daughter, is in a pitiful state.

We need to get every action we can possibly think of under way and the Vacant and Derelict Sites Bill, which we proposed in February, is a contribution to that. I would very much like to see the report on the effectiveness of the Government's tax proposal that is due to be laid before the Dáil being laid before Seanad Éireann too. The town I grew up in, Macroom in County Cork, has 210 vacant properties according to the 2016 census. That is a huge number of properties in such a small town. It would reinvigorate a small town like Macroom to have people living over the shops like I did when I was growing up. These 210 houses could be homes for people waiting on the social housing waiting list. Given the work and the concern in Seanad Éireann around this issue, it is important that this recommendation is passed and that the report on a tax on vacant residential property is debated in this House.