Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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528. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding derelict sites; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27267/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Section 9 of the Derelict Sites Act 1990 provides that it shall be the duty of every owner and occupier of land, including a statutory body and a State authority, to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the land in question does not become, or does not continue to be, a derelict site. Section 10 of the Act further places a specific obligation on local authorities to take all reasonable steps to ensure that any land within their functional area does not become, or continue to be, a derelict site. Local authorities have substantial powers under the Act, including powers to establish a register of derelict sites in their functional areas; requiring owners or occupiers of sites to take specific measures which the authority considers necessary to address the dereliction within specified timeframes; to acquire a site by agreement or compulsorily in certain circumstances; and to impose an annual derelict sites levy at a rate of 3% of the market value of a site on registered sites in urban areas or other areas prescribed by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to be an urban area for the purposes of the Act.

The administration and implementation of the Act at a local level is a matter for the respective local authorities. Under section 8(5) of the Act, a copy of the derelict sites register for any local authority can be inspected at the offices of that authority during office hours. This positions members of the public to engage with their local authority in relation to the authority’s proposals for dealing with individual derelict sites.