Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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276. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the areas designated urban for the purpose of the Derelict Sites Act 1990. [57101/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Derelict Sites Act 1990 ("the Act") provides for the payment of an annual levy in respect of sites in urban areas that have been included in an authority’s derelict site register on the 1st January of that year, and where the site’s market value has been determined. “Urban Area” is defined in the Act as:

“a county or other borough , an urban district, a town or an area prescribed by the Minister under section 21.”

Consequently where authorities are considering the inclusion of a new site in their register, they must satisfy themselves that the new site in question is in an urban area under the terms of the above definition and if it is not, then it is necessary to make the relevant return to the Department so that the Minister may formally prescribe the area as an “urban area” via statutory instrument for the purposes of the Act. The authority may not impose a financial levy on a new site that is not already included in the section 21 definition or has not been prescribed by the Minister for the purposes of the Act.

The list of areas prescribed by the Minister under section 21 of the Act to date is attached.