First entries on Dublin Vacant
Site Register show lack of plan
for State-controlled sites
MARCH 31, 2017
The first entries on the Dublin City Council Vacant Site Register, published
today, show how little is being done by Government to use publicly controlled land
to deliver new housing supply in Dublin.
Róisín Shortall, co-leader of the Social Democrats, said “In total, the sites are
valued at €77.7m. Of the 25 sites listed, 11 are state-controlled or owned by state-
funded bodies. There should be a plan in place for each of these sites to determine
whether or not they are suitable for development and how they can be developed as
quickly as possible.
It’s ridiculous that the Government is sitting on so much unused land in the
middle of a housing emergency. Where is the urgency to use these sites?”
Ms Shortall also criticised the
delay in producing the register and
drew attention to the exclusion of many
sites from the list.
“The Government could bring far
more sites into play by allowing
the levy to be applied to smaller sites.
Already we have seen that 174
such sites have been excluded for this
reason alone by Dublin City Council.
The Government should also close off the loophole in the current legislation
that allows certain land to be exempt from the levy – i.e.: land where the site value is
exceeded by the loan value.
And the rate of the levy should be increased the longer sites remain vacant. We
could well see a situation where the rate of the levy (3%) is less than inflation in land
prices – which would provide no incentive at all for land-owners to release the land
for housing.