I have just arrived here from Bass Place in Dublin 2, a stone's throw from here, in my constituency. There is a terrace there of six houses that are on the Dublin City Council derelict sites register. We were there to highlight the need for the Government to take more effective action to tackle the scourge of vacancy and dereliction across the country. We are conscious that the numbers of sites represented on the derelict and vacant sites registers of local authorities underestimate the scale of the problem. We are calling on people to report vacant and derelict sites in their own area. We are calling on the Government to do more to tackle this scourge of vacancy and to do more to ensure reactivation of vacant homes, in particular, that could be repurposed to house our homeless people, so many of whom are now in emergency accommodation. According to Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures, there are approximately 160,000 vacant and derelict properties and yet Ministers are saying that the vacant homes tax, which the Government has brought in, will be largely ineffective with only 25,000 letters going out from Revenue this week.

The local authorities should get on with it. Come on.

Where is central government?

The Deputy should get on to Dublin City Council and Dublin county councils.

We are.

Dublin, apparently, having said all of that, recorded the lowest vacancy rate national of 1% in the latest GeoDirectory Residential Buildings Report in June 2023. Local authorities need to be very proactive in utilising the powers that are already there in respect of dereliction and derelict sites. They need to be more proactive in implementing and enforcing the legislation.

Where is the central government response?

Central government has provided significant funding and significant grants for people to refurbish and bring back to life derelict houses or buildings, and also vacant ones. There are very substantial grants for individuals, families or young couples in towns around the country under this scheme, which is a good initiative. On the Derelict Sites Act, there is an obligation-----

I thank the Tánaiste. We are out of time.

The Deputy will say to me some day there is too much centralisation in the country-----

We are out of time.

-----yet when people have responsibility locally everybody comes back to the centre to solve their problems.

A Thánaiste, it is a minute and a minute, please.