There are 50 derelict properties registered in County Kildare

There are 50 derelict properties registered with Kildare County Council.

And local councillor Nuala Killeen said the council should do more to collect levies - charged at the rate of 7% of the market valuation per annum - from these.

Most of the derelict sites are in the Athy area which has 14, followed by Newbridge-Kildare (13), Naas and Celbridge (8 each), Maynooth-Clane (7).

KCC says compulsory acquisition has commenced on a number of properties on the register and  if acquired compulsorily or by agreement, the levies owed are deducted from any compensation or purchase price agreed.

Properties will remain on the register until renovation works are complete and they are no longer derelict and of the 50 properties some  17 have activity ongoing to address the dereliction, meaning these are in the process of being acquired.

The amount of levies due this year is almost €559,000 while the total levies due in all is at €1.13m.

Independent councillor Tom McDonnell accused multinational companies like Tesco of contributing to the problem because smaller businesses have closed down.

“We need to regenerate sites," he said.

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However, Cllr Bill Clear said much of the problem is with people buying properties and to prevent them being used to establish enterprises that would compete with their own.

Cllr Clear said KCC had done a lot to develop derelict sites but many properties are unsuitable for transformation into residential settings.

According to Kildare County Council, each derelict site has a different background story and sometimes the process of dealing with them is complicated by legal issues.