{"id":13601,"date":"2025-09-24T15:27:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T14:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=13601"},"modified":"2025-09-24T15:28:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T14:28:24","slug":"government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Government must get tough on vacancy and dereliction in next month&#8217;s Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government must get tough on vacancy and dereliction in next month\u2019s Budget, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Hearne said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew figures from the CSO show there was a fall in vacant dwellings from 76,457 at the end of 2022 to 72,245 in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, if you consider there were officially 72,569 vacant properties when the last government came to office in 2020, this modest reduction is hardly an achievement after six years of FF\/FG in power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBringing vacant properties back into use is one measure that could make a real difference to those at the sharp edge of the housing crisis \u2013 and it\u2019s something that could be done quickly if the political will existed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government must fund local authorities to allow them to CPO vacant properties and restore them for use. In addition, it needs to introduce a vacant homes tax with teeth \u2013 something the Social Democrats have been consistently calling for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe current rate \u2013 set at five times the basic Local Property Tax \u2013 is far too low to discourage owners from sitting on empty homes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>September 24, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government must get tough on vacancy and dereliction in next month\u2019s Budget, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne. Deputy Hearne said: \u201cNew figures from the CSO show there was a fall in vacant dwellings from 76,457 at the end of 2022 to 72,245 in 2023. \u201cHowever, if you consider there were officially [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Government must get tough on vacancy and dereliction in next month&#039;s Budget - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government must get tough on vacancy and dereliction in next month&#039;s Budget - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government must get tough on vacancy and dereliction in next month\u2019s Budget, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne. Deputy Hearne said: \u201cNew figures from the CSO show there was a fall in vacant dwellings from 76,457 at the end of 2022 to 72,245 in 2023. \u201cHowever, if you consider there were officially [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-24T14:27:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-24T14:28:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250708-Rory-03.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Press Officer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Press Officer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Press Officer\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/70fcd60661593532616f9f91a0fb8db7\"},\"headline\":\"Government must get tough on vacancy and dereliction in next month&#8217;s Budget\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-24T14:27:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-24T14:28:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":193,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/20250708-Rory-03.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Housing Crisis\",\"Press Release\",\"Rory Hearne\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/government-must-get-tough-on-vacancy-and-dereliction-in-budget\\\/\",\"name\":\"Government must get tough on vacancy and dereliction in next month's Budget - 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