Last Saturday I and other public representatives attended a public rally in Dunmore town in east Galway. The campaign was orchestrated by Dunmore tidy towns and the Dunmore business people association because of dereliction on both sides of the street, where most properties are privately owned. They are dogged with tiles and slates falling off the roofs onto main street, where children and indeed their parents and teachers gave testimonials. It is a horror story in terms of the length of time it is going on. It is years and years. I am asking that we have some framework to expedite regeneration and to deal with people who are willingly sitting on private properties and allowing them to go into such disrepair.

There is a responsibility on the local authority. The derelict sites levy is there. We are changing that as a result of the budget, as the Deputy knows. The Government has decided that the responsibility for dereliction and derelict buildings will transfer to Revenue. Work is under way between the Department of Finance and local authorities to get the proper maps for local authority areas that will fall under the remit of Revenue to determine dereliction and to apply the appropriate levies to get activity going.