Labour TD Marie Sherlock has said that rather than policy planning by press release, the Tánaiste must commit to releasing funding for local authorities to CPO and renovate properties to bring them back into use as social and affordable properties.
The Dublin Central TD questioned the exact nature of the Tánaiste’s plans to tackle derelict properties across Dublin and bringing them back into public use.
“People are fed up with the talk – it is time for real action by the Tánaiste and his government,” she remarked.
“We have a government that is still figuring out its approach on the derelict property tax, all the while, local authorities are stalling on properties with no ability to renovate them as the government’s own buy and renew scheme effectively dried up last year for renovations.”
Prior to the Dáil’s Easter break, the government parties said that the government were looking to mvoe to a “renew and purchase” model where contractors will be given homes to sell back to Dublin City Council for a fixed price.
“But just like many recent pronouncements by the government, we have no detail. We need to know about funding and when it will come into effect,” she said.
“The impact of all this hiatus is that homes now owned by DCC continue to lie idle, are deemed too expensive to renovate, are an ongoing blight on their communities and will now probably face the appalling prospect of being sold off to a developer for a nominal sum,”
Sherlock said “it is time for the Tánaiste to give us the detail. Our question for the Tánaiste is, what are you going to do now about dereliction? Communities are demanding action, funding, and housing – not press releases.”
“There is no clearer example of the government’s failure on dereliction than 19 and 21 Connaught Street and 8 and 10 Ferguson Road, Drumcondra,” she noted.
She said the derelict properties are just two “appalling examples of a blight of dereliction on communities where both are derelict for more than twenty years,” noting the properties have a “torturous record of being on DCC’s derelict site register since 2009 in the case of Connaught Street and 2005 when the process began for Ferguson Road.”
“According to geodirectory, there are 1,494 long term vacant properties within Dublin Central and yet there are only 40 on DCC’s derelict site register. This shows that even current measures to address vacancy and dereliction have simply failed.
“Enough spin. Enough press releases. We need clarity now about the new “renew and purchase” scheme and funding to be unlocked for local authorities to take the kind of drastic action that vacancy and dereliction requires in the midst of the worst housing emergency this state has ever seen,” the Labour TD said.