Cork County Council is using a range of measures to bring properties back into use, including engagement with owners, sales processes, works, planning applications and statutory notices

Cork County Council has approved almost 1,400 grants under the Government's vacant property scheme, helping bring hundreds of long-empty homes back into residential use

Green party councillor Honore Kamegni said at Monday night’s council meeting that the continued commercial rates vacancy allowance relief 'rewards vacancy'

Earlier this year, Cork County Council said there were 127 properties on its county-wide derelict sites register, with 40 of those located in the Western Division

Monerea House on Albert Rd, was described by a planning commission inspector as 'overgrown with vegetation, and a property at 8 Grange Terrace, Grange Rd has been listed on the derelict site register since November 2022

He welcomed enforcement of the Derelict Sites Act 1990 increasing, but said the rate is too slow as he addressed the Dáil’s housing committee about dereliction recently.

Cork City Council has spent €1.6m on compulsorily acquiring properties, €1.1m on shuttering empty properties and €33m on refurbishing vacant homes since 2020, but derelict site levies are still routinely going unpaid and this income could soon be lost to local authorities altogether.

A notice has been hung on the door by the council, explaining that it would like to speak with the owner to “discuss the removal of dereliction”, adding that the council “would prefer to work with the property owner to bring this derelict property back into use”.

Numbers 62-65 North Main St — known as Paradise Place — are now vested in the city council following their acquisition under the terms of the 1990 Derelict Sites Act.

Cork-based anti-dereliction campaigners Frank O’Connor and Jude Sherry are celebrating five years since they began highlighting the issue blighting Cork city and town centres around the county and country.

Arrears for Cork's two local authorities combined was nearly €6.5m, with the €1.8m not paid from last year bringing the total arrears to €8.3m.

Of the urban areas in Cork surveyed Cobh had the highest commercial vacancy rate at 19.1%, while Carrigaline had the lowest rate nationally at 5.1%

Cork City Council chief executive, Valerie O'Sullivan, said a 'key mechanism' for encouraging inner-city living is tackling dereliction and relaxing regulations surrounding residency above shops.

Amy Campbell hears from Cork dereliction and vacancy campaigners Jude Sherry and Frank O’Connor, who have called on the new Government to stop multiple systems which they say reward leaving properties vacant rather than bringing them to use as homes.

Figures provided by the council in response to a query from The Echo disclosed that the number of sites on the register increased from 71 at the end of 2023 to 122 at the end of last year.

There are 108 sites now on the register, up 52% from the end of last year when it contained 71 sites.

The call was made by Fianna Fáil councillor Gearóid Murphy after demolition works began in recent weeks on part of the site of the former Central Hotel in Mallow.

In response to a question at a council meeting this month, the local authority outlined a number of measures it is taking to clamp down on idle properties.

According to the Department of Housing in May €20.4m in levies remained uncollected across all 32 local authorities.

Part of a city centre pavement remained cordoned off on Wednesday morning amidst fears of a structural collapse

The local authority said that the number of sites on the derelict sites register has increased by 45%.

Local authorities urged to convert derelict houses to address the 'scandalous' waiting lists for local authority housing

Around 40 people attended the meeting in Togher Community Centre, which was organised by Labour Party local election candidate for the Cork City South West ward, Laura Harmon

Laura Harmon said that there were currently over 3,000 vacant properties on Cork city’s Southside.

There are 147 sites on the Derelict Site Register and the local authority is currently in the process of adding a further 55 sites to the Register.

Information obtained from Cork City Council revealed the local authority collected around €102,000 in derelict site levies and around €370,000 in vacant site levies between January and the end of October, 2023.

The figures come as the Census 2022 figures published by the Central Statistics Office revealed there were 11,994 vacant properties in Co Cork on Census night last year