Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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233. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will request that empty houses in County Kildare owned by Waterways Ireland will be either taken out of dereliction or given to the local authority. [6853/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Derelict Sites Act 1990 requires every owner and occupier of land, including a statutory body and a State authority, to take all reasonable steps to ensure that land does not become or does not continue to be a derelict site. It also requires that local authorities take reasonable steps, including the exercise of appropriate statutory powers, to ensure that any land within their functional area does not become, or continue to be, a derelict site. To this end, local authorities have been given substantial powers under the Act in relation to such sites, including to:

- establish and maintain a register of derelict sites in their functional area,

- require specified measures to be taken in relation to a derelict site,

- impose a levy on sites which are included in their derelict sites register, and

- acquire derelict site s by agreement or compulsorily.

I am informed that Kildare County Council does not have property owned by Waterways Ireland included in its Derelict Sites Register. Accordingly, the utilisation of powers under the Act, including Ministerial powers, does not arise.

It is a matter for local authorities to determine the most appropriate use of the legislation within their respective functional areas.

Under section 8(5) of the Act, a copy of the derelict sites register compiled by a local authority can be inspected at the offices of the authority in question during office hours. This facilitates members of the public to engage, if they so wish, with their local authority in relation to addressing individual derelict sites.