In September 2018, Minister for Housing James Browne whistled a very different tune on local government.
During a Dáil debate on abolishing town councils and greatly reducing powers for local government, Browne noted “it has been said that without local government we do not have democracy; that is very much the case.”
A mere TD for Kildare at that stage, Browne said, “I very much want to see the return of our town councils. I was proud to serve on a town council for five years. It was a very effective town council that had a balanced budget. The loss of those councils is an absolute shame on this democracy.”
Cut forward to 2026, and Browne, now Minister for Housing, has managed to unite the opposition against him.
Recent comments from Browne and Tánaiste Simon Harris place the blame for the housing crisis at the feet of local government.
In recent weeks, Browne has written to local councils across Ireland calling on them to rezone land for housing development.
Tánaiste Harris has thrown fuel on the fire by claiming that local governments had “not done enough” to tackle dereliction.
The Tánaiste told RTÉ “I have a duty to point out to people, right across the system, an inconsistent approach, and I’m not going to tolerate an à la carte approach to government policy on dereliction. I’m going to call it out every time.”
The Tánaiste indicated he would “take away” certain powers from local authorities if they did not comply with the government’s plans.
Considering Ireland is ranked in the bottom five in Europe for powers afforded to local democracies, critics may argue what powers the government have left to take away from local councils.
May marked 10 years since Fianna Fáil backed Fine Gael in a confidence and supply arrangement, and this month marks six years since Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael formed a historic grand coalition.
At some stage, opposition politicians have claimed, the government parties need to stop blaming councils for issues their own parties caused.
Fine Gael, in power since the February 2011 general election, cannot play the “it cannot be fixed overnight card” according to Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin.
The Sinn Féin party spokesperson noted that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in control of the majority of Ireland’s local councils, councils that have been “starved of resources and staff.”
“This package of half measures on housing shows once again that this Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government has no urgency or ambition on housing,” Ó Broin asserted.
“The vacant and derelict property taxes should have been transferred to Revenue years ago; they should be punitive, doubling each year, and should apply to the tens of thousands of vacant homes across the state.”
“The Tánaiste and Minister for Housing would be better placed to get their own house in order instead of blaming others and gaslighting the public,” Ó Broin remarked.
Ó Broin noted that Harris has been a government TD for all 15 of his years in the Dáil, and a Cabinet member for 12 of those.
Government councillors “angry and annoyed” at Minister Browne’s one-man war on DCC
Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne also noted the government parties are playing the “it can’t be fixed overnight” card.
“The Tánaiste has chosen to scapegoat local authorities for his Government’s failures. Fine Gael has been in Government for 15 years, yet has only now realised that dereliction is an issue that isn’t being adequately addressed,” the Dublin North-West TD remarked.
“Councils do not receive the resources required to identify derelict sites for Revenue. They lack powers of enforcement and there is also ambiguity around the legal definition of dereliction. These shortcomings lie squarely at the feet of the coalition,” Hearne said.
The Soc Dems housing spokesperson called the new derelict site levy into question, saying that an established dereliction tax already exists, called the Derelict Sites Levy.
“The derelict sites levy already applies to the whole country, so this new tax effectively reduces the number of buildings eligible for taxation and fines,” he noted.
“The Tánaiste is taking an established tax, narrowing its remit, and passing the buck to Revenue instead of providing the necessary resources which local authorities need for its effective implementation,” Hearne said.
“There’s nothing new to see here. It has been the government’s policy to place the blame for its failures on local authorities for years now,” he said.
“The fundamental problem with the derelict sites levy was that councils were not resourced sufficiently to tackle dereliction. Dedicated teams were never allocated the number of staff needed to identify, CPO and renovate derelict sites. Simply handing the powers of tax collection to Revenue leaves these fundamental problems unaddressed.”
Independent Senator Victor Boyhan said that the Tánaiste playing the blame game “wasn’t helpful.”
“I have sat in front of far too many chief executives of far too many councils with the Taoiseach, with the Minister for Housing, with the Minister of State for Planning, and they eyeball us and say they’ve done enough and they haven’t,” he said.
The independent Senator said that the government are “letting young people down” by failing to get a grip on housing.
“They’re letting young people down.”
Labour councillor Dermot Lacey, a councillor with over 30 years experience, said that the Tánaiste’s comments were “a convenient distraction from years of government failure.”
The Pembroke councillor said it was “extraordinary” that the Tánaiste would blame councils for his own government’s shortcomings.
“The suggestion that local authorities are the reason derelict buildings remain vacant is simply not credible. Councils did not create this crisis,” Lacey said.
“The crisis is the result of years of failed housing policy, weak enforcement mechanisms, chronic underinvestment in local government and a refusal to provide councils with the tools needed to intervene effectively.”
“Local authority staff are already stretched trying to tackle vacancy and dereliction while managing housing delivery, planning, regeneration, climate action and a growing range of statutory responsibilities,” the Southside councillor said.
The Labour councillor said “Ministers cannot demand results while refusing to provide the resources required to achieve them.”
“Every councillor in the country knows that local authorities need more planners, more housing staff, more enforcement officers and more legal resources if they are to tackle dereliction at the scale required.”
Lacey said that the government should put their money where its mouth is, and back up their words with action.
“Communities do not need another round of blame-shifting. They want to see empty buildings turned into homes, derelict sites regenerated and town centres revitalised. That requires meaningful reform, not headlines,” he said.
“Local authorities are not the obstacle to progress. They are the frontline agencies tasked with solving a problem that successive governments have allowed to deepen. If the government is serious about tackling vacancy and dereliction, it should stop looking for scapegoats and start giving councils the powers, staffing and resources they have been requesting for years,” Lacey said.