Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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229. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he plans to establish a national registry of derelict sites. [34057/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Under the Derelict Sites Act 1990 (the Act), local authorities are required to maintain a derelict sites register, which includes the name and address of each owner and occupier, where these can be ascertained by reasonable enquiry, of any land which, in the opinion of the local authority, is a derelict site. 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. Members of the public can engage with their local authority in relation to addressing individual derelict sites in their local areas.

Every year my Department requests a data return from local authorities on the implementation of the Act. This return includes information on, inter alia, the number of sites on the register at the beginning of the year, the number of sites entered onto, and removed from, the register during that year, and the number of sites on the register at the end of the year.  Also included is information on the derelict site levies imposed, paid and outstanding, as well as information on compulsory acquisition. 

As this information is already gathered annually by my Department and the registers of each local authority are available for viewing by the public, I have no plans to establish a national register of derelict sites at this point in time.