Of the urban areas in Cork surveyed Cobh had the highest commercial vacancy rate at 19.1%, while Carrigaline had the lowest rate nationally at 5.1%

Cork City Council chief executive, Valerie O'Sullivan, said a 'key mechanism' for encouraging inner-city living is tackling dereliction and relaxing regulations surrounding residency above shops.

Amy Campbell hears from Cork dereliction and vacancy campaigners Jude Sherry and Frank O’Connor, who have called on the new Government to stop multiple systems which they say reward leaving properties vacant rather than bringing them to use as homes.

Figures provided by the council in response to a query from The Echo disclosed that the number of sites on the increased from 71 at the end of 2023 to 122 at the end of last year.

There are 108 sites now on the , up 52% from the end of last year when it contained 71 sites.

The call was made by Fianna Fáil councillor Gearóid Murphy after demolition works began in recent weeks on part of the site of the former Central Hotel in Mallow.

In response to a question at a council meeting this month, the local authority outlined a number of measures it is taking to clamp down on idle properties.

According to the Department of Housing in May €20.4m in levies remained uncollected across all 32 local authorities.

Part of a city centre pavement remained cordoned off on Wednesday morning amidst fears of a structural collapse

The local authority said that the number of sites on the derelict sites has increased by 45%.

Local authorities urged to convert derelict houses to address the 'scandalous' waiting lists for local authority housing

Around 40 people attended the meeting in Togher Community Centre, which was organised by Labour Party local election candidate for the Cork City South West ward, Laura Harmon

Laura Harmon said that there were currently over 3,000 vacant properties on Cork city’s Southside.

There are 147 sites on the Derelict Site and the local authority is currently in the process of adding a further 55 sites to the .

Information obtained from Cork City Council revealed the local authority collected around €102,000 in derelict site levies and around €370,000 in vacant site levies between January and the end of October, 2023.

The figures come as the Census 2022 figures published by the Central Statistics Office revealed there were 11,994 vacant properties in Co Cork on Census night last year