Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Ivana Bacik (LAB), Dublin Bay South

I know they say attack is the best form of defence, so it is no surprise the Taoiseach chose to go on the attack and to mount an attack on the Labour Party, because he knows that Government policy on vacancy and dereliction is indefensible. He simply has no defence. It has patently failed. It is not just about publicly owned buildings. The Taoiseach and the Government have effectively conceded that the current system, including the derelict sites levy and the derelict sites register, is ineffective. I am looking at the Government's own up-to-date website, which promises to introduce a new derelict property tax. That is an initiative we supported. What are we seeing on the Government's own website? "A preliminary national register of derelict properties will be published in 2027, with the tax starting soon after." That is all the Government can commit to on its own website. The Government has flagged this many times as the key measure it is introducing to tackle vacancy and dereliction.
I think the Taoiseach agrees this is a scourge across the community. It is particularly a scourge where the buildings and sites are publicly owned - that is indefensible - but on the Government's own measures, there is no sense of urgency to bringing them in.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04