Written answers

Thursday, 23 February 2017

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Derelict Sites

Photo of Noel GrealishNoel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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212. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if each local authority has now established a derelict sites register and has the necessary resources to prioritise this work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9117/17]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon 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:

- 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.

Under section 8(1) of the Derelict Sites Act 1990, each local authority was required, within one year after the commencement of the Act, to establish and thereafter maintain a derelict sites register. 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.

I understand that each local authority has established, and maintains, a derelict sites register as required. It is a matter for individual local authorities to allocate the necessary resources for the fulfilling of their statutory obligations in this regard.

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