Dereliction is a disease. It is insidious. It destroys communities. Nothing saps the confidence of a town like dilapidated, derelict, dangerous buildings. Vacancy unchecked is the gateway to dereliction. There are nearly 2,000 derelict sites in Ireland, and they are just the ones that have been recorded and have made it onto the derelict sites register. There is an acute situation in my home town of Drogheda. Just three weeks ago, an important 18th century building was about to fall down. The street has since been closed and neighbouring businesses have lost trade. Properties that used to host shops and homes are falling and collapsing around Ireland as we speak. This problem is not exclusive to my home town. It is a national disgrace and a national solution is required.

It is telling that the national planning framework mentions dereliction just twice. The Derelict Sites Act 1990 is just not fit for purpose. The Tánaiste's Minister for housing, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, admitted that in 2021 when he set up a working group to change the Act. The working group has met on just three occasions since 2021 and still has not reported. Why is that the case? The Derelict Sites Act is a rogue developers' charter. It has allowed dodgy developers to erect hoarding around obviously derelict buildings just to screen them from public view, thereby complying with the Act. This is just crazy, absolutely bonkers. These errant developers are literally giving the two fingers to citizens across the country, and to councils as well.

If you own a property that you can afford to let go to rack and ruin, you are obviously rich. The only language that some people understand is money. These people need to be hit hard in the pockets. Revenue needs to be given the power to collect derelict site levies. Owners that dodge the councils and the District Court need to be the responsibility of the Revenue Commissioners. Give these people tax compliance problems instead. Hit their businesses. The Derelict Sites Act needs to be streamlined. It needs to be made easier for councils to acquire derelict buildings before they become dangerous. The Tánaiste will agree there is an environmental imperative to recover important buildings in our town centres and put them back into use before we develop new ones. I know the Tánaiste is going to talk to me about the Croí Cónaithe scheme. It is piecemeal, a sticking-plaster solution, that is all, as is the deficient town centre first programme. Despite my calls over many years, the living cities initiative tax relief has not been extended to towns like Drogheda.

Will the Tánaiste, please, put a rocket under the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and get him to publish the report of the Derelict Sites Act working group? Will he amend the Act and make the definition of dereliction stronger, more robust and more effective? Will he streamline the compulsory purchase process and introduce compulsory sale orders, for example, like they have in Scotland? Will he staff up councils to properly allow them to fully enforce the laws that are in place? Will he give the Revenue Commissioners the legal power to collect levies?

Dereliction and vacancy is a key issue. However, I would argue that never has more funding been made available through a whole variety of schemes to try to end dereliction and get urban regeneration going. In the first instance we have the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF. A lot of that is yet to come through in terms of the schemes. Funding has been allocated, schemes have been announced, but through design and planning it is going to take quite some time before we will see that on our street landscapes and in our towns and cities. Then we have the rural regeneration and development fund on top of that, through which about €575 million has been invested in about 245 major projects since the Government was formed. That has supported landmark regeneration projects. About €400 million in the URDF is currently giving assistance to 132 projects.

The Deputy said not to mention Croí Cónaithe. It provides for the vacant property refurbishment grant itself. Some 8,300 applications have now been received by local authorities with some 5,100 already approved. That will help vacancy and dereliction in a very concrete way. In my view, it is a far more direct way than some of the ideas the Deputy has put forward, which I agree with, in terms of streamlining CPO. The Derelict Sites Act has never reached its potential, I accept the Deputy's point. However, I do think there is an onus and responsibility on local authorities to do better in respect of being proactive on implementation of the Act. I will talk to the Minister about the working group and getting it to complete and publish the report. That could inform some of the issues the Deputy highlighted.

As to whether we would give Revenue a role, the Revenue Commissioners are wary of being asked to do everything in terms of what may be seen as policies for other Departments to enact. It is the domain and jurisdiction of local authorities. Certainly from what I have seen on the ground, the derelict sites framework has not worked to the degree that it should. The town centre first initiative of the Government will make a difference in towns across the country. There is a range of measures, including rural regeneration and development, urban regeneration and development, Croí Cónaithe and the town and village renewal scheme, which are incentivising the bringing back to life of derelict buildings and derelict residential streets. That is the key.

Derelict sites are the low-hanging fruit in terms of addressing the housing crisis that we have.

I know the Tánaiste visited Drogheda briefly during the local and European election campaigns, but he did not walk down a street in Drogheda called Narrow West Street. Had he done so, he would have seen a case study of dereliction and things that can go wrong. He talks about resourcing local authorities and making sure they do the job they are required to do under the Derelict Sites Act. That is all well and good, but the Government might consider resourcing them properly. Louth County Council, for example, got a total of €7 million this year for its CPO agenda. That amount is nothing close to what is required to allow it to fulfil its plans to acquire properties under CPO and bring them back into use. What should be considered is, for example, the compulsory sales order idea. This is in place in Scotland. If a developer is not using a property and if it is derelict, he or she is required to sell it on to somebody who can use it.

What we need is a national conversation about property interests and property rights and how they are balanced against the rights of the common good. In the review of the Derelict Sites Act, we need to prioritise community interests, the common good and the public interest over the property rights of developers and property owners.

There are streets across the country which need that rebalancing in respect of the common good. Sometimes it can be through the delay in getting various projects through. Take Dublin and O'Connell Street. A major project there has been on the go for about 20 years in respect of retail and residential. What is the name of that company? I do not have its name now but it has gone through dozens of committees, met with a cross-party committee here-----

Moore Street.

No, I am talking about the development itself - the bigger one. That has yet to go through planning but it has been on the agenda for about two decades. That is a problem that speaks more to the dereliction question. When a big project is mooted and is in the works, very little happens until it gets realised. I see that in parts of Cork at the moment as well in terms of people waiting for certain developments to take place before they will invest. That is one issue, but I have no difficulty with the fundamental principle of rebalancing the rights under the Derelict Sites Act in respect of the common good.