Campaigners identify 700 derelict properties in Cork
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Campaigners say they have identified a staggering 700 derelict properties within a 2km radius of Cork city centre.
It is more than seven times the official figure on Cork City Council’s derelict sites register.
Five new sites were added to the official register last month — almost twice the number added to the list across all of 2020.
The latest additions — including the former O'Reilly Travel site on St Ann’s Road in Blarney - brings to 13 the total number added to the register since the start of this year, and brings the total number of derelict sites on the register to 105.
Frank O’Connor, who along with Jude Sherry, has been highlighting the scourge of dereliction blighting towns and cities across Ireland, said the actual figure in Cork is much, much higher than official figures suggest.
Mr O’Connor said while they documented 450 derelict properties within a 2km radius of the city centre between June 2020 and June 2021, and then shared the details of just over 340 or so in their report, 'This Is Derelict Ireland', published around this time last year, they were aware of hundreds more properties in a similar condition.
Now, he says they have identified 700-plus properties, all within the same 2km radius, they believe meet the legal definition of derelict.
“We have focused very clearly on the legal definition of dereliction and we are happy that what we have selected meets the definition of derelict,” he said.
Their report busted a number of myths which they say have been used as excuses for allowing dereliction to endure.
The report, and their relentless focus on the issue ever since, has sparked similar debates about derelictions in cities and towns across the country.
Their campaigning led to an invitation to address the Oireachtas joint committee on housing, local government and heritage on urban regeneration last December. It is due to publish a report within a matter of weeks.
Mr O’Connor said he hoped the report would recommend a more strategic data-driven approach to tackling dereliction that involves coherent and robust enforcement of the Derelict Sites Act.
He hopes the committee will recommend the introduction of compulsory sales and compulsory rental orders which could be applied to vacant or derelict properties.
“The compulsory rental order could be a transformative step,” he said.
“The owner retains ownership of the property, but they get a fair rent and someone gets a home.
"That could be a game-changer, in the context of a housing crisis and the Ukrainian housing situation.
“We have never needed homes more than we do now."