Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Maybe things will get done there because, in regard to the councils on the other side, Dublin City Council had land for a long time - O'Devaney Gardens and you name it. Nothing happed there for a decade. We need people to get things moving and maybe the other side of this story, which I have not heard, is that people are anxious to get things moving here and that we could have 1,000 houses much faster than would otherwise have been the case. I do not know. I have not the specifics of it but I will follow it up.
On Deputy Quaide's question, to be fair, two of the big significant interventions in terms of dereliction have been the grants we have brought in to enable people to refurbish and bring back to life vacant houses and dilapidated or derelict houses. Up to 7,000 people have applied for those grants and they have been effective. On the Derelict Sites Act 1990, again, the local authorities have responsibility on dereliction. It is, fundamentally, a function of local authorities. I accept it has not happened with the uniformity or consistency across the country that it should have. Some councils are better than others, so the Government, in this year's budget, decided to hand responsibility to Revenue for a tax on derelict sites that would be administered by it, which will deliver a better outcome in bringing derelict buildings back into use much faster. There is a lot of mapping going on and so on, and work being done to make sure that proposal is implemented efficiently, effectively and comprehensively but it is the right direction of travel given that the Derelict Sites Act, as administered by councils over the past decade or so, has not been as effective as it should have been.
Deputy Paul Murphy raised the issue of South Dublin County Council. Again, I do not have the specifics of that. There has to be sustainability in whatever situation is there but the Deputy is saying rents will go up 53%.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-09