Local Fine Gael councillor Eddie Hoare has said that the tackling of derelction in Ireland is needed, not for financial benefit to local authorities, but to change behaviour of those who own the sites.
He said that we already have derelict and vacant buildings right across Galway that could be homes, and the powers to act already exist, grants, the derelict sites levy, and CPOs.
“The most important thing to understand about the tax is that its real value isn’t the money it raises, it’s the behaviour it changes. The goal is not to collect a tax.
“The goal is to make sitting on a derelict building the more expensive option, so that the owner is pushed to either renovate it, sell it, or hand it on to someone who will.
“A levy that’s actually working should see properties coming back into use and the bill falling away, not piling up year after year, That’s exactly why it has to be applied consistently,” he said.
A levy that owners know will never really be enforced changes nothing. One that is applied without fail changes everything, because it shifts the incentive. Where it’s properly used, it works.
“Every derelict building brought back into use is a home for a family and a boost for towns and villages right across Galway. I want to see the council use every power available to it, treat the levy as a tool to change behaviour rather than a line of income, and I’ll be pushing for that,” he concluded.
