Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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275. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the options local authorities have to compulsorily purchase order derelict sites in instances in which they cannot establish the registered owners of the site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53940/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Section 6(1) of the Derelict Sites Act 1990 (the Act) outlines the ways in which notices relating to derelict sites can be served by local authorities on a person under the Act. These are:

(a) where it is addressed to him by name, by delivering it to him;

(b) by leaving it at the address at which he ordinarily resides or, in a case in which an address for service has been furnished, at that address;

(c) by sending it by post in a prepaid registered letter, addressed to him at the address at which he ordinarily resides or, in a case in which an address for service has been furnished, at that address;

(d) where the address at which he ordinarily resides cannot be ascertained by reasonable inquiry, by delivering it to some person over sixteen years of age resident in or employed on the land to which the notice relates or by affixing it in a conspicuous position on or near such land.'

Section 6(2) of the Act further provides:

"Where the name of the owner or of the occupier (as the case may be) cannot be ascertained by reasonable inquiry, a notice may be addressed to “the owner” or “the occupier” (as the case may require) without naming him.".

With regard to acquiring ownership of a derelict site, in order for the site to become the property of the local authority, said local authority is required to undertake the processes outlined in section 15 of the Act. This includes serving notice on the person concerned under the above-mentioned section 6 of the Act indicating the authority's intention to compulsorily acquire the derelict site in question and publishing the details in one or more newspapers in it's functional area. If there are no objections to the proposed acquisition under section 16 of the Act, the local authority must then follow the processes outlined in section 17 of the Act in order compulsorily acquire the site by way of vesting order.

Once a derelict site has been acquired by a local authority and it, or any part of it, is not required by the local authority by whom it was required, section 20(2) of the Act allows for the sale, letting, transfer or exchange of the whole or that part of it (as the case may be) of the derelict site.