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OVER HALF OF Ireland’s local authorities are failing to collect money from owners of derelict sites, as latest figures suggest that councils are owed more than €20 million in unpaid levies.
New data on derelict sites for 2023, the latest year for which figures are available, show that 17 out of 31 local authorities didn’t collect any money from landowners that year.
The figures were released in response to a Parliamentary Question by Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne and showed that just €604,621 in levies was collected by councils in 2023, despite over €5.6 million being owed to all 31 local authorities.
It means that councils were owed around €20.5 million in unpaid levies at the end of 2023; the figure is likely even higher now, because it tends to increase annually as unpaid levies accumulate over time.
Each local authority keeps a Derelict Sites Register which includes the sites subject to an annual levy of 7% of its market value for being in a “ruinous, derelict, dangerous or neglected condition”.
The levy continues to apply until the site is no longer deemed derelict, while unpaid levies attract interest of 1.25% per month.
If necessary, local authorities can take the landowner to court to recover this amount or compulsorily purchase the site from its owner.
Money owed to local authorities under the levy becomes a charge on the land until it’s paid.
Figures released as part of the PQ response show that there were 1,913 derelict sites around the country at the end of 2023, up from 1,573 a year previously.
The local authorities that didn’t levy any money against landowners of derelict sites in their area were: Cavan, Clare, Cork County, Donegal, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Galway County, Kerry, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Longford, Louth, Monaghan, Sligo, South Dublin, Waterford and Westmeath.
Waterford City and County Council had the highest number of sites (82) on its register at the end of 2023 without collecting any money.
A spokesperson said the council was aware of issues in collecting levies in the past, which centred around staffing and lack of resources, as well as changes of ownership of the relevant sites and the development of derelict properties.
The council said it had received increased funding from the Government to tackle the issue of dereliction, and reviewed all sites in 2023 before starting to levy them in 2024.
Cork County Council, which had the second-highest number of derelict sites on its register without collecting any money, said this was due to a variety of reasons, including properties changing hands, unverifiable ownership and the deaths of property owners.
A spokesperson for the council said that levies totalling €89,600 were issued to derelict site owners last year, of which €4,550 has been paid to date.
Clare County Council, which had the third-most sites on its register without collecting any money in 2023, said that not all the vacant properties on its register were in so-called “designated urban areas” and could therefore not be levied.
A spokesperson said that the commencement of legislation to designate the entire county as an urban area for this purpose commenced in 2024, and €124,110 was subsequently levied in 2024, with further levies of €225,050 to date in 2025.
Every local authority had multiple derelict sites on their own register, and only 238 sites were removed from registers over the course of the year.
Dublin City Council levied almost €1.6 million for 54 vacant sites in 2023, but collected just €176,529 in respect of those sites.
The local authority was owed €6.7 million – more than any other council – in outstanding levies and had 109 sites on its register at the end of the year.
Cork City Council likewise levied €1.1 million for 63 vacant sites, but collected just €38,225 for sites levied in 2023; it was owed almost €5 million at the end of the year, when it had 158 sites on its register.
Four local authorities – Kerry, Westmeath, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Galway County – did not collect any of the money they levied during 2023, despite adding 100 sites to the register between them.
A spokesperson for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown confirmed the only payment it received in 2023 was for a payment that was due in 2022.
Kerry, Westmeath and Galway County councils were contacted for comment, but The Journal received no response by the time of publication.
The four councils collectively levied €658,127 in 2023 and collectively had 158 sites on their registers, but did not collect a single cent from landowners last year.
Limerick City and County Council was the only local authority that came near to collecting the amount it levied in 2023; it received €245,166 out of €259,940 owed in respect of 131 sites.
It also had more sites on its register than any other county, with 427 earmarked as derelict at the end of 2023.
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Wow, housing crisis, healthcare in a mess, judiciary suspending sentences of thugs, prisoners being let out early due to lack of capacity, people working full time but struggling to make ends meet, nurses emigrating while we trawl the world looking for nurses, I could go on and on…….but Michael Martin wants to ban sun beds, Jesus ….use your time to do something useful.
@Eddie Garvey: Multiple things can be done at the same time.. jesus fkin wept like..
@Ian: Yes, multiple things can, but he chooses to do none.
@Eddie Garvey: With skin cancer being the fastest growing cancer in Ireland (more than 13,000 new cases (over 12,000 non-melanoma skin cancers and 1,100 melanomas) diagnosed each year, I’d say reducing these numbers is “something useful”.
@Jack Hayes: “7% of the population using sunbeds and 3% regularly” seems very high!
No point, it’s only chavs that use them anyways so who cares
@Eddie Garvey: tell us ye love sunbeds without telling us ye love sunbeds !
@Ian: While obviously the above sentiment is predictable I’m not so sure we do anything but make life harder for ourselves.
@Eddie Garvey: Your wasting your time talking about the Bertie Kisser who has been
fooling the people for 40 years
Can we possibly, just maybe, allow grown adults to make up their own minds? Don’t like it? don’t do it/use it/get one/smoke/drink/eat whatever it is but allow us to be a free thinking people
@Isla Carabine: The problem is that grown adults are destroying themselves and are a drain on the health system and public finances because of bad habits!
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: Public finance’s? You mean the taxes the public pays which in turn pays for the health system? Our health system isn’t drained because people are using sunbeds. It’s drained because of poor management and running.
@Ger Whelan: Yes. Well done. Public finances = made up in part of income tax. There is a lot of money spent treating people from issues ranging from skin cancer, to addiction, to obesity…..etc all due to people damaging themselves by poor lifestyle choices….. It is also drained by poor management. Wasted money in the health sector is not down to one thing. People looking after themselves would save a lot of money and resources. Thanks for missing the point completely.
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: Yes, but we always legislate for the minority. It’s driving people nuts.
@Isla Carabine:
We all want freedom,but we also owe it to the younger upcoming generation to lead by example
If we allowed them to do all of those things,including drug taking,the country,and health system would fall apart
How’s about a ban on RTE?
@Padraig O’Brien: All we’ll be left with is Virgin Media channels. No thanks.
Who does Mehole think he is? Justin Trudeau?
Skin cancer is the fastest growing cancer in Ireland. There are over 13,000 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed each year. If you have ever used a sunbed your risk of melanoma increases by 20% and using it before the age of 35 increases your risk by almost 60%. But the usuals whinging here … even if it comes to trying to reduce these numbers.
@Jack Hayes: if you want to help try to find a reason for the global excess mortality rate. I will give you a clue. It is not because of sun beds nor is it because I had a bag of tayto when I was seven
@Oh Mammy: were they cheese and onion or smokey bacon flavoured tayto?
@Ger Whelan: without a doubt it was the smokey bacon. The smoke did not come from organic wood.
@Oh Mammy: But nobody is talking about excess mortality, they’re talking about increased cases of skin cancer – or is that a global conspiracy now too?
@Jason Memail: why do you have to wait till everyone is talking? Independent, critical thinking is what’s needed. Sunbeds are nonsense. I do not doubt they are harmful but nonetheless a distraction. No one was talking about Biden being incapacitated until last week. And that was an easy one.
@Oh Mammy: Here I thought we were living longer.
@Thesaltyurchin: you are behind the times. Update your reading.
@Oh Mammy: I’m talking about skin cancer, not any ‘global excess mortality’, Dim Bulb.
@Jack Hayes: keep burying yourself in their distraction.
Ah he’s back from globe trotting and saving the planet.good man micháel
Mehole.again…stop now journal just stop
Six articles about mehole this week,there’s other chancers out there too
Don’t sun-beds boost the immune system in areas where the population don’t get enough Vitamin D? Maybe we should all use them, not to be browner, just to subsidise our sunless existence.
@Thesaltyurchin: you are better off taking large doses (50,000 mcg) of vitamin d
@Oh Mammy: I was reaching a bit far there in fairness :)
Its proven that sunbeds cause skin cancer and when your in your twenties you don’t realize that later in life you will pay for the sun bed treatments with skin cancer that can kill. Skin cancer becomes a life changing experience for people that get the cancer and it becomes a ailment that is avoidable and a drain on the health service. Choice is good but the choice of giving yourself skin cancer later in life is not a choice a person should have.
What’s that? Mr. Burns wants to block out the Sun?!
I support The ban on him commenting anything
Nice, no more orange lady ?
Where these not banned in the 80s and 90s. Why were they allowed to start up again.
@Colette Byrne: (a) They were not (b) they were not.
have your say