Fine Gael has somehow managed to replace the failing derelict sites levy with a new tax proposal which covers even fewer derelict sites, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne TD.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hearne said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe T\u00e1naiste has chosen to scapegoat local authorities for his Government\u2019s failures. Fine Gael has been in Government for 15 years, yet has only now realised that dereliction is an issue that isn\u2019t being adequately addressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouncils 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2018new\u2019 tax mooted by Simon Harris – there is already an established dereliction tax, the derelict sites levy – only applies to towns with a population of over 4,000 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe derelict sites levy already applies to the whole country, so this new tax effectively reduces the number of buildings eligible for taxation and fines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe T\u00e1naiste 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing new to see here. It has been Government policy to place the blame for its failures on local authorities for years now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new dereliction tax must cover the entire country, not just towns of over a specified population, and Revenue must be resourced and empowered in a way which local authorities never were to effectively implement taxation and fines. The Government must learn from its mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
June 15th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fine Gael has somehow managed to replace the failing derelict sites levy with a new tax proposal which covers even fewer derelict sites, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne TD. Deputy Hearne said: \u201cThe T\u00e1naiste has chosen to scapegoat local authorities for his Government\u2019s failures. Fine Gael has been in Government for 15 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[860,10,7,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dereliction","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n