Fianna Fáil has launched a new housing strategy, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, with a strong emphasis on ending dereliction and bringing vacant properties back into use.

Announcing the plan Minister for Housing James Browne said the initiative is designed to accelerate homebuilding nationwide.

The party's target is to deliver more than 300,000 homes by 2030. Achieving this, it says, will require major investment in infrastructure, regulatory reform, land zoning and tax measures to speed up private sector delivery.

Fianna Fáil added that the programme builds on Housing for All, introduced in 2021, which it credits with helping to deliver 137,000 new homes. The party says it will "pull every lever" to ensure all parts of the sector take a hands-on approach to getting homes built.

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A central pillar is tackling dereliction. The plan commits to returning 20,000 homes to use via the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant; introducing a Derelict Property Tax to be administered and collected by the Revenue Commissioner; and expanding the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant to include an 'Above the Shop' top up Grant and an Expert Advice Grant to convert empty shop space into housing.

The Living City Initiative will be extended to 2030 and widened to cover residential properties built before 1975, as well as the NPF Regional Centre towns of Athlone, Drogheda, Dundalk, Letterkenny and Sligo.

Local authorities will add more sites to the Derelict Sites Register, step up enforcement and pursue unpaid levies. A national, aggregated digital Derelict Sites Register with mapping and standardised site details will be published annually.

Where owners of vacant or derelict buildings do not engage, councils will use compulsory acquisition powers to purchase properties, supported by schemes such as the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund.

A Fianna Fáil spokesperson on housing said: "With over one hundred thousand vacant buildings across the State, many of which are also derelict, it is vitally important that additional measures are implemented to bring as many of these properties back into use for residential purposes as soon as possible. There are a range of measures in this Plan which will both incentivise property owners to act, but also to penalise those who fail to do so in a timely manner."