Minister James Brown, who has defined it as “unacceptable in a housing crisis”, has brought a memo to Government on Compulsory Purchase Orders at local Council level.

Minister Brown’s declaration of war on dereliction follows a warning to Local Authorities from Junior Housing Minister John Cummins that “inconsistency” in tackling vacancy and dereliction is “undermining national efforts”, as he accused some councils of being “too slow to take decisive action”.

To delve into this in more detail, Alan Morrissey was joined by John Crowe, Chairperson of Clare County Council's Social Development SPC and Carmel Greene, Senior Executive Officer of Land Activation, Derelict Sites and Property Management at Clare County Council.