Dereliction is a form of abuse and a social crime, so how can we justify it?
Vacant properties on Father Mathew Quay in Cork city. Groups are self-organising and campaigning for change, bound by an underlying belief that dereliction and vacancy can be turned into an opportunity to provide homes, places to play, create and work. Photo: Larry Cummins
Over the last six months, dereliction in Ireland has become newsworthy, it’s been hard to get through a day without its negative impacts being raised in Irish media. Conversations have emerged from all four corners of Ireland.
There’s even been coverage of #DerelictIreland as far afield as Italy and France, not a particularly good Brand Ireland look. People are not only noticing the epidemic levels of dereliction across Ireland, but they are also realising that it can be ended with a change in mindset and political will.
Groups are self-organising and campaigning for change, bound by an underlying belief that dereliction and vacancy can be turned into an opportunity to provide homes, places to play, create and work, and that heritage not only matters, but it is vital, spawning protest art in the form of festivals, poetry, painting, music and more.
There is now a recognition that dereliction is more than just the visual pollutant and waste of a building or site, it represents a systems failure that can be fixed. Dereliction impacts our health, wellbeing, local economy, sense of place, and international tourist brand.
It’s a toxin, and a waste of precious, often priceless, heritage and resources. Dereliction leads to places feeling less safe and attractive to live in or to visit. There are no positives for society in dereliction.
Dereliction is not new in Ireland. It’s been here since the foundation of the State. However, the conversation about its impacts has changed and grown considerably in the past year. The #DerelictIreland movement reached new heights recently when we addressed the Houses of the Oireachtas and featured in the RTÉ Six One and Nine O’Clock news.
This follows an 18-month citizen-led campaign that included a first-of-its-kind in-depth study of dereliction in Ireland, investigating 340 derelict properties within a 2km radius of Cork City. The seminal publication “This is Derelict Ireland” went on to debunk 10 common dereliction myths.
The have reported on dereliction for several years and were the first newspaper to report on the growing conversation around dereliction, with Michael Moynihan interviewing us in September 2020 which led to the movement featuring in an EcoEye documentary.
The newspaper recently completed a series of features that showcased the realities of dereliction in Ireland. The real-life stories, the photos, the informed insights and the impact. The message was clear. Dereliction doesn’t make sense on any level.
So why is it allowed to destroy so much of Ireland? The sad fact is the existing law, the Derelict Sites Act 1990, is not fully enforced. This is not news, however, it was reconfirmed by both the series and the Oireachtas.
At the latter, representatives from Dublin City Council and Waterford City Council expressed an unwillingness to enforce the law prioritising the needs of the owners, consciously or unconsciously, over the needs of the wider society.
We believe that this neglect has led to a culture of more owners leaving a building go derelict and potentially falling onto the street given there are no repercussions or costs to them. With our current escalating land and properties prices, we are rewarding owners for their bad behaviour from the guaranteed rising asset value while others die on our streets.
This is not the foundation of a healthy society or sustainable economy. In the words of economist David McWilliams, this is simply “State-sanctioned vandalism” and needs to end.
At the Oireachtas hearing, we reminded everyone of the destructive myth that our constitution protects private property above all else when it clearly states that private property rights ought to be regulated by principles of social justice and the common good.
The State through the inaction of the local authorities is not upholding their side of this foundational social contract by allowing extreme levels of vacancy and dereliction to persist. Given the deadly consequences, this is a social crime.
This raises some serious questions around why as a society we have allowed this to happen and how do we urgently change things? And since when did the local authorities make decisions on which laws to ignore and which to enforce?
If the authorities are not enforcing laws on dereliction where else in the system is there dereliction of duty? And will they be prepared to implement new measures such as a vacancy tax if charged with the responsibility?
Although a critical component, enforcing the law alone is not enough to eradicate dereliction, other challenges to address include:
- a limited toolbox of policy measures (including Compulsory Sales and Meanwhile Use) and effective incentives,
- the slow overly-cumbersome process of compulsory purchase,
- the lack of reliable data on so many aspects of our building stock,
- finding the right skills to repair and refurbish (given the most sustainable building is the existing one),
- and the current cultural acceptance of an abnormally high number of vacant homes.
There is no quick fix for all of this but these challenges can be addressed through a joined-up custodianship-based approach to end this blight of dereliction and bring vacancy to acceptable levels. But we must first repair the social contract through bringing in transparency and accountability and enforcing the law.
If we can’t trust our local authorities to implement the laws then perhaps we need to have a rethink of what they and our society stand for.
Until then, many of us will have to continue to risk our lives when we walk our decaying urban streets, the same streets people are dying on for lack of an affordable and secure home, when there is an alternative.
How can anyone justify this form of abuse? We know Ireland is a caring society that wants no one to be without a home any time of the year, let alone at Christmas. If that is the case, let’s stop accepting this unnecessary waste and neglect and agree on ending Derelict Ireland within five years. And then go and do it.
How wonderful a legacy that would be for all of us.
