John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I call for a debate on the concept of vacant and derelict homes, particularly after the really positive announcements a few days ago of the €150 million action plan to tackle vacancy and dereliction, which will be provided to our local authorities. I would appreciate a debate because I believe there is a lot of good practice that could be learned from other local authorities around the country that have already embarked on this, a long time before the Government or anyone was advocating for it. I speak about this with Louth County Council in mind. That council started using compulsory purchase orders as far back as 2015 and 2016 to turn derelict homes back into family homes. In one recent year there were 130 houses, in another year there were 98 houses, and in another year after that it was 115 houses.That was all down to the local authority being very proactive in using compulsory purchase orders, which it was one of the first local authorities in the country to do, to get vacant properties back into the housing stock. It is a really good story and other local authorities right around the country can learn from it, particularly those of a similar size to Louth County Council.

I warmly welcome the very important funding that is being made available. We must make sure all local authorities have the proper expertise within them to be able to utilise the funding. We need to ensure no moneys are not drawn down and that all local authorities can use the funding to make the best impact. There are really good case studies showing how the issue has been dealt with particularly well in the past couple of years, as in the case of Louth County Council. I would welcome an overall debate with the Minister in the near future on what the Government is doing to tackle dereliction and restore properties to our housing stock.