Derelict Sites
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I enjoy these rare moments of agreement between Deputy Gould and me. He often shouts at me from the other side of the House and the odd time I shout back as well. As we come up to the Christmas period, it is nice to have a rare moment of harmony so let us cherish that. We are having this rare moment of harmony because we both recognise that dereliction is a real scourge. Deputy Nash made this point earlier from a public health point of view, a safety point of view and the point of view of a sense of community, but the housing emergency also puts an acuity on it. I want to do this as quickly as possible. I do not want to mislead the Deputy or the House on it. I take the Deputy's point and accept his bona fides when he asks if we can start with a certain group. The truth is that once we introduce a national tax, we cannot start anywhere; we have to start everywhere. It is no different with the movement from the current levy to the new tax. It has to be consistent and applied without fear or favour, no matter where the property is located in Ireland and no matter which local authority area is involved at present. This is a big body of work for the local authorities. I will help and support them, as will the Government, in undertaking this. I will visit Cork City Council, on the invitation of its chief executive, in January. I am sure we will have a chance to discuss dereliction and other issues. We will do this as quickly as possibly but the plan is to legislate in 2026 and we can tease through all of these issues in the course of the legislation.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09