I welcome the Bill, have read through it on a number of occasions and thank those who brought the Bill together and assembled it. The Bill tells us quickly, however, and I am sure the Minister will admit it himself that the system is broken. Unfortunately, the Bill does not fix it. It is a good attempt but it needs a little bit of fine tuning. It creates more reporting without guaranteed actions. It risks become a box-ticking exercise. There are no penalties for councils that fail or repeatedly fail. There are no performance targets in the Bill. There are no obligations on the Minister to intervene. I am happy to work with my colleagues in Sinn Féin to give my thoughts and feed into the Bill as well. What I am saying is not a criticism. At least you are doing something. When we hear people saying that it will be 2027, as my colleague said about "war on dereliction", they are great words. However, they are not much comfort to the people who meet in our constituencies, including the Minister's constituency. He must be meeting the same as us if he is facing the public these days. When I ask people how I can assist them, they will tell me that their daughter has been on the housing list for ten years in Cork County Council, Cork City Council, Limerick City and County Council, Wexford County Council or wherever. They will say that there are two houses down the end of the street that have been vacant for the past five or seven years and that would be perfect for her. They come along to Cork City Council and ask why this stock is not being turned around. The council will be very honest with people and will say that its allocation from the Government is not enough money to repair the property.

Sentiment score: 0.07

It is being allocated €11,000 or €12,000 per year to bring properties back into property stock. The cost of an average composite door now for a front door of a house is €2,500. That is what a person will pay. Most people have to go to the credit union for a loan to get it if they are in private houses. There are then all the criteria and laws that are there. If a house is made vacant by a local authority or has been handed back to the local authority, the fire marshal goes in and says, "You have to get rid of this, you have to get of that and you have to get rid of the other. You have to take out the kitchen. You have to take out the lovely glass doors. You have to seal up the bannisters in case you get sued. We have to check this, check that and the other." It is bringing thousands of extra euro to the cost of it. I do not know about the rest of my colleagues in here but I do not know how many people have said to me that were the house given to them as it stands, they had a brother who was an electrician, a cousin who was a plumber and had somebody who would help them out if they were given a small relaxation on the rent over the next two years to bring it up to a standard. The house could be inspected on a regular basis and they ask if the house could be handed over to them. I have gone to the local authorities and they have said they cannot and their hands are tied. In fairness to Cork City Council, which I served on with my colleague, Deputy Gould, for 18 years, it has the highest rate of levy collection nationally. There has to be great credit. There has been a huge turnaround in a positive way since Valerie O'Sullivan became the chief executive of the council. I see dereliction everywhere. I see dereliction in Cork City Council and Cork County Council areas, mainly because funding has not come through and big enough funds are not available. Houses are sitting idle and this is horrifying. As the story goes, people see a house they say would be perfect for their daughter. Imagine passing it every day and thinking about family members sleeping on a pop-up bed in their front room while there is an empty house. This is what we are dealing with. I do not know whether the Minister can fathom this or work it out but this is what is going through people's minds. They are wondering why and what is wrong with the system when they hear the Minister say he is at war with dereliction. Something that was very well brought in was the refurbishment grant. It is a great system but, unfortunately, it is not working to its maximum. The payment structure is wrong. It is very slow to pay out and it is difficult to negotiate and get through. It needs to be sped up and we need to put more investment into it. I want to speak about the residential zoned land tax. It is important to mention this in the debate. Some people love to say developers and builders are the worst in the world and that they are trína chéile with this fellow, that fellow and the other fellow but not every developer is a bad guy, a bad agent or a bad actor. I know of somebody in Blarney with residential zoned land who went to Cork City Council for planning permission. Planning permission was granted by the council for the site and for a supermarket in Blarney, which would be ideal because it needs an additional supermarket to cover the area from Tower to Blarney. There was one objector, the lord of the manor next door, and now the person has to pay the residential zoned land tax because it is a derelict site. This is despite planning permission being granted on the site and the person having to go to An Coimisiún Pleanála and judicial review. Surely the developer, who is anxious to break ground on the site and who has entered competitive dialogue with the local authority regarding affordable housing to help us and the Government bring up our housing stock and reduce our housing crisis, should be exempt from this tax. The developer is actively pursuing it and is trying to do the right things to have property built and services put on the site. Surely there should be an exemption for this type of person. We are tinkering around with this. I do not want to be offensive to anyone because great credit is due to people who write Bills in the House, in particular those in the Opposition, but we are tinkering around with this. We know at this stage that the present rules and systems that are there for dereliction are not fit for purpose. The legislation the Minister is promising to bring in in 2027 or 2028 is not fit for purpose either. We need to have a system whereby we can go in and say someone has sat on a pile of bricks for the past 20, 15 or ten years, has done nothing with it and there are no planning applications involved. We need to be able to purchase it through CPO at much less than market value. They should be punished for it. It should be taken from them for a minuscule amount of money. This would teach them a lesson. I imagine we would see a lot of people putting up "for sale" signs very quickly on their derelict sites if they knew the value of the site was worth nothing all of a sudden because the Government or local authority would move in and say it is taking it from them, they are not doing anything with it, they are a menace to society, and they are causing serious problems to their neighbours. It is true. There is a house in Blackpool, and Deputy Gould would know it quite well also, which has gone in for planning permission 23 times and has been turned down. It has been a derelict site for the past 30 or 40 years. The developer is looking for an extra floor. The developer needs to build an extra floor to make it profitable. Nobody from the local authority has picked up the phone and said there is something wrong and they are getting it wrong, and asked them to come in to have a preplanning meeting to see how to get it over the line. There is no incentive to get these people in. It does not matter a damn to the officials. This is the reality of it. I am speaking about local authority officials and not the Minister's officials. There is a situation here whereby we need to look at the entire process and say this has not worked. The State is more than 100 years old now and this has not worked. What we need to do is look at the standards and best practices throughout the world and throughout mainland Europe. In a lot of countries and a lot of places, and in certain counties and states in the United States in particular which have introduced their own state law, a property is taken from someone if it is not maintained. People are fined for not having a property up to a proper standard. Some places, and I do not overly agree with this, will tell people how to paint a property, what to paint it and what the painting scheme can be. I do not endorse this by any means but at least they are taking a proactive approach in their cities and towns. They are ensuring dereliction is not there, it is not a dumping ground, it is not a breeding ground for antisocial behaviour, and that there are no rodent infestations. If we were serious about having a war on dereliction I would be only too happy to join the Minister but come up with a plan.

Sentiment score: 0.07