My question is on dereliction and how we can get county councils to enforce current Government policies. Dereliction is a plague on most cities, towns and villages in Ireland. I commend the Government incentives to bring properties back into use such as the vacant property refurbishment grant, and the vacant above-the-shop initiative. Local authorities have the tools to deal with dereliction with the first step being simply to register derelict properties but I am simply astounded why some councils do not see fit to embrace these policies. If you look at the derelict site register today, there are 154 sites registered in Waterford and 367 sites registered in County Limerick and only four sites registered in the whole of County Wicklow. Why should hard-working businesses and communities in Carnew, Shillelagh and especially Arklow have to accept less dereliction enforcement than any other county in Ireland to the detriment of these town and villages?

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It is really important that we do everything in our power to bring derelict properties back into use, that we use every lever available to us and where local authorities are not responding that we look at what other levers are available. It is a priority for this Government, and a priority in the Government’s housing plan. The Derelict Site Act contains a number of actions and powers that can be provided to the local authorities. There is a derelict site register, statutory notices requiring remedial works, annual levies and compulsory acquisition powers. However, as the Deputy said, we have seen that some local authorities are much better at this than others. He rightly said the number of properties in Wicklow on the derelict site register is far too low at four so much more needs to be done. I understand the Department of housing has recently met Wicklow County Council to highlight this and to be clear that more needs to be done on its part. The Minister, Deputy Browne, the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, and particularly the Minister for Finance are looking to bring in a new derelict property tax. That would be an incentive to make sure that all parties move on this matter.