Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. In fairness to him, he has laid out his points in a structured manner and has covered all of the areas. I wish to say at the outset that I agree with him. It is an issue that we need to address. I am going to set out the existing legislation and the powers that local authorities have, but I will come back to his points later in terms of what we can do going forward.

The Derelict Sites Act 1990 imposes a general duty on every owner and occupier of land to take all reasonable steps to ensure the land does not become, or continue to be, a derelict site. The Act also imposes a duty on local authorities to take all reasonable steps, including the exercise of appropriate statutory powers, to ensure any land within their functional area does not become, or continue to be, a derelict site. Each local authority also maintains a derelict sites register under section 8 of the Act for sites which they consider are derelict under the Act.  Sites entered on the derelict sites register are subject to an annual derelict sites levy of 7% of market value, which will continue to apply until the site is rendered non-derelict. As the Senator mentioned, at the end of 2023 there were outstanding community levies of €20.45 million on derelict sites nationally. The collection of these levies is a matter for the individual local authorities concerned. A review of the Derelict Sites Act is being conducted, with local authorities invited to make submissions on potential improvements in the legislative provisions and the way they are applied. Discussions on the review are ongoing. It is intended in the context of related policies, legislative amendments and funding schemes that have been developed since the review commenced, in addition to the increasing challenges associated with dereliction, to now further consider the potential to improve the legislation and related supporting mechanisms.

Placing sites on the derelict sites register, and collecting levies in respect of those sites, is not the sole mechanism that local authorities apply to tackle dereliction. Local authorities are working collaboratively with property owners in local communities on the use of a range of available statutory tools and funding schemes with a view to achieving the ultimate goal of bringing properties back into use. The 2018 planning and development regulations provide for an exemption, which has now been extended to the end of 2025, from the need to obtain planning permission for the change of use of certain vacant commercial buildings, including vacant properties above groundfloor premises, to residential use such as above-shop living. Returns from the local authorities in relation to the exemption for 2018 to 2023 indicate that 1,165 development notifications were received from developers for refurbishments of vacant commercial properties, relating to a total of 2,716 potential new homes being provided.

The vacant property refurbishment grant provides funding of up to €50,000 for the refurbishment of vacant properties, and up to €70,000 where a property is confirmed derelict. The grant is making the transformation of these properties into homes an affordable option for individual home buyers and owners. At the of 2024, over 11,300 applications had been received for the vacant property grant. Over 7,700 of these applications have been approved and over 1,400 grants have been paid to date as refurbishment works have been completed.

Tackling vacancy is also a key action of the Town Centre First initiative, which is a whole-of-government policy framework to address the decline in the health of towns and to support measures to revitalise them. Dedicated town regeneration officers are now established within local authorities. They work closely with vacant homes officers and others to comprehensively develop regeneration and investment plans.

As the Senator will have seen, there are incentives to bring some of these vacant properties back into use and some of them are working. I am sure that some local authorities are better than others in using the tools that are available to them. The legislation is there. Local authorities have that legislation. For some reason, there are large amounts of levies uncollected. That absolutely is an issue. If we are seen to be a light touch, this dereliction issue will continue. The chink of light for Senator Conway is that there is now an opportunity to review the legislation and perhaps give local authorities a bit more teeth in this regard.