Whether it’s the ruins of a military barracks in Nenagh, a collapsed building in Mitchelstown, a ghost estate in Abbeyfeale or the not so ‘Grand Hotel’ in Tramore, vacant and derelict buildings represent a legacy of neglect for our physical environment, reports The Irish Examiner.
image: West End Mallow – National Library of Ireland – Commons Wikimedia
… there is no one-size-fits-all approach which can be applied to this problem…
Chartered Surveyor Gerard O’Toole writes in The Irish Examiner:
Over the last five or so weeks this series has not made for comfortable reading.
By focusing on a representative number of towns across Munster the series has highlighted the endemic nature of dereliction right across the country and the generally slow and fragmented response to it by both local authorities and central government.
So widespread is the problem, many of us have probably become inured to it, not fully realising the demoralising and corrosive effect these abandoned buildings have on our communities as well as on our long-term architectural and historical heritage….
Whilst we know it is a major problem, the full extent of dereliction remains unknown due to the lack of accurate data.
The CSO put the figure of vacant building at over 180,000 back in 2016 while the GeoView Directory by An Post from 2020 indicates there were more than 92,000 vacant addresses across the state….
…. Because each building’s story is different, there is no one-size-fits-all approach which can be applied to this problem…
….Within its ‘Housing For All’ plan, the Government says it will promote four pathways to delivering new housing stock, one of which is addressing vacancy and efficient use of existing stock….
….Right now, we are experiencing a significant shortage of both professional and skilled trades people….
….For the first time, employees now have an opportunity to relocate to smaller provincial locations, possibly where they are from or where family members live.
This presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity….
….Amid an ongoing housing crisis, there is a compelling and indeed moral obligation on us to address this issue of dereliction in a comprehensive way for the public good….
Ten key steps to tackle the blight of dereliction:
- Concerted action from government…
- A substantial funding commitment…
- Attractive and effective retrofit schemes…
- An effective property tax…
- Tax incentives…
- Remove… planning permission for some straight forward developments
- The widescale development of work-hubs…
- Introduce large scale apprenticeships…
- Local Authorities to adopt a more proactive approach..
- Encourage participation by local community and development groups.
