Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive response. It is a little weak but not on his part. I am glad we have had this dialogue because there are derelict sites and a housing crisis. There are motions every second week in the Dáil on the housing crisis. It points up a weakness that reports on derelict sites were done by the CCMA in 2021 and 2022, and it will soon issue an interim report on derelict sites, yet the country is blitzed with derelict sites. The Land Development Agency, LDA, stated yesterday it can build houses all over the place. It has been in operation for a few years and has built sweet damn all. It bought houses from private developers to fill a quota.

There is a case to be made here. There are derelict sites in all our towns and villages. We need to do something. This is weak legislation. There needs to be a penalty. I posed a question to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage as to whether responsibility for the collection of tax should be given to Revenue. I did not suggest it should be although I believe Revenue is the only organisation that can get the money in. I thank the Minister of State and look forward to seeing the report. We must ask the CCMA to come up with a report. We have a problem. There is a housing crisis and derelict sites are sitting on the books. Local authority managers tell me they cannot get the money in and the sites are sitting derelict. That is a challenge for us all.