Housing: all fur and no knickers*?

*The Taoiseach used the phrase recently to describe people who look wealthy but are not, but his bon mot is as apt to describe the lack of legal enforcement of Coalition plans to regenerate cities

SUCCESSIVE ministers in charge of planning have failed to use their powers to tackle councils and State bodies who fail to deal with derelict sites across the country, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.

The revelation comes as the Government is accused of repackaging a series of older schemes to tackle the blight of boarded up buildings in our towns and cities.

In recent years the Coalition has been criticised for failing to clamp down on local authorities that have not enforced fines on the owners of derelict sites that could be used to build much-needed housing.

There have been no less than seven government initiatives since 2018 that have attempted to combat the scourge of dereliction and vacant homes across the country.

Under Section 12 of the Derelict Sites 1990 Act, the minister has the power to ‘direct a local authority to serve a notice in relation to a derelict site’.

According to the Act, the minister can also ‘direct a local authority to take such step so as to prevent any land owned or occupied by them from becoming or from continuing to be a derelict site’.

When it comes to derelict property owned by State bodies, the minister also has the power to ‘direct that body to take such steps as are open to it to dispose of that interest’.

However, the recently departed Minister of State in charge of planning, Peter Burke, has confirmed neither he nor his predecessor, fellow Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan, have used these powers since 2019 to compel local authorities to act against developers who continue to sit on derelict sites.

In response to parliamentary queries from Independent TD Michael McNamara, Mr Burke said: ‘I have made no directions under sections 12 and 13 of the [Derelict Sites] Act in the period since taking office.

‘Nor did my predecessor in the period from the beginning of 2019 to the date of his leaving office.’

Mr Burke also confirmed the department responsible for combating dereliction, ‘does not collect data on the number of prosecutions initiated by each local authority under the powers provided in the Act nor data on the subsequent use of sites acquired under the Derelict Sites legislation’.

Deputy McNamara said the response was ‘indicative of the state of absolute disarray that Irish housing provision was in’.

The Clare TD told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘It is bad enough that leadership is not coming from the councils on this issue, but apparently it is also not coming from those nominally in charge of councils; government ministers.’

The revelation comes as Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien was this weekend accused of failing to deliver social and affordable housing.

Earlier this week, Mr O’Brien insisted ‘we are making significant progress in tackling vacancy and dereliction’ following the recent announcement that €150m would be made available to local authorities to transform dilapidated and unused buildings into new homes.

The €150m Vacant Homes Action Plan is the seventh government scheme launched since 2018 to combat dereliction and vacancy.

Mr O’Brien and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed this week that just under 30,000 new homes were completed last year, which they said represented a 20% increase on its first-year target under the Housing For All strategy.

But the 6,500 new social homes built last year fell far short of the Government’s 9,000 target for 2022.

Social Democrats housing spokesman

‘Hundreds of millions remain unspent’

Cian O’Callaghan told the MoS: ‘There has been no shortage of schemes, plans and targets for housing since this Government has taken office.

‘There has, however, been a shortage of delivering new homes that are needed at prices that most people can afford.’

Mr O’Callaghan hit out at the failure of central and local government to spend ‘hundreds of millions’ allocated to housing projects.

The Dublin Bay North TD said: ‘What is really galling is that hundreds of millions allocated to be spent to help build new homes that people need remains unspent.

‘There needs to be laser-like focus on the direct delivery of affordable homes.

‘For much of the 20th Century we delivered thousands of high-quality affordable homes as well as thousands of much-needed social homes that radically improved people’s lives. There is no reason why this approach cannot be taken now.’

One Government TD noted: ‘It appears to be another case of how we are tackling the housing crisis in theory rather than practice. If Government reports and launches were homes, the problem would be solved.’