
The Survey was conducted by Social Democrats Councillor Bill Clear.
A survey of empty buildings and houses in Naas and Sallins has revealed a total of 128 commercial and residential buildings, and sites.
The survey, conducted by Cllr. Bill Clear discovered that there are 55 vacant and derelict commercial buildings, 65 vacant and derelict houses and eight derelict sites.
The survey originated after the Social Democrats councillor called on the public to submit details of buildings in their areas.
Cllr. Clear has described them as a blight on the area, and said they were holding Naas back from winning the Tidy Town’s competition until they are sorted out.
“What we found was very interesting. Dereliction and vacant buildings is a complex situation and I wanted to get as much information as possible so I could know the scale of it – which you need if you want to get it fixed,” he explained.
“Our next step is to advertise nationally all commercial buildings available to rent at the moment and to target well known brands with data on local demographic and income levels.
“Secondly we will contact the owners whose commercial buildings are not available to rent and see why," he said.
“We will get the council to contact all owners of vacant houses with a view to purchasing them and/or renovating them – for which there are grants available.
“We will register all derelict buildings, sites and houses on the Derelict Site Register and on vacanthomes.ie.
“And we will be pushing for the Council to refurbish their own houses, of which there are about 20.”
The councillor described the approach as “the carrot approach for now with the aim of getting at least half of the properties back into use.
“We stop seeing these buildings after a while but we cannot tolerate it any more. It is a blight on our towns.
“Naas is the Cleanest Town in Ireland but it cannot win the Tidy Town National competition until we sort this out,” he added.
Cllr. Clear has called on members of the public to keep sending him, in strictest confidence, details of empty houses in their estates and areas.