The Health Service Executive is sitting on an unpaid bill of almost €400,000 in derelict site levies owed to local councils across Ireland, raising serious questions about how the state manages its own property obligations while the housing crisis continues to bite.
The HSE controls a massive property portfolio of around 4,400 buildings nationwide, and a significant number of those have been sitting idle long enough to rack up derelict site charges. Yet despite councils doing their job and issuing those levies, the HSE has not paid up.
Derelict site levies exist for a reason. They are designed to push landowners and property holders to either develop or sell off land and buildings that are going to waste, particularly in areas where housing and community facilities are desperately needed. When private owners dodge these levies, they face legal pressure. The fact that a state body is doing the same thing is being seen by many as a bad look.
Local councils have been left chasing the money, with the outstanding amount sitting at just under €400,000. For individual councils, especially smaller ones, that is not a trivial sum. It represents funds they are legally entitled to collect and that could go toward local services and infrastructure.
The situation also highlights a broader problem with how state agencies manage their property. The HSE has accumulated a vast estate over decades, much of it made up of older buildings tied to hospitals, clinics, and health facilities that have since closed or been replaced. Some of these properties have been left to deteriorate rather than being sold, repurposed, or handed over to local authorities or housing bodies.
Critics have pointed out the contradiction at the heart of this. On one hand, the government is under enormous pressure to release land and buildings for housing. On the other hand, a major state agency is holding onto thousands of properties, some of them derelict, and not even paying the levies that are supposed to encourage action on exactly that kind of situation.
The HSE has not given a clear public explanation for why the levies remain unpaid. There is no suggestion the charges are being disputed in full, but the money has simply not been handed over to the relevant councils.
For communities living near HSE-owned derelict sites, the frustration goes beyond the financial. Vacant and run-down buildings attract anti-social behaviour, become eyesores, and drag down the appearance and morale of neighbourhoods. Residents in several towns and villages around the country have been raising concerns for years about former health facilities sitting empty with no clear plan for their future.
Housing campaigners have long argued that the state needs to get its own house in order before lecturing private developers and landlords about their responsibilities. The derelict levy situation with the HSE feeds directly into that argument.
There is also a question of whether the current system for enforcing levies against state bodies is fit for purpose. Private owners who refuse to pay derelict site levies can face escalating charges and legal action. Whether those same enforcement mechanisms are being applied with equal force to the HSE is unclear.
The Department of Health and the HSE have both been under pressure in recent years to carry out a proper audit of the property portfolio and come up with a realistic plan for buildings that are no longer needed for health services. Progress on that front has been slow.
With nearly 4,400 buildings on its books, the HSE is one of the largest property holders in the country. Even a fraction of those being released for community or residential use could make a meaningful difference in areas where space is at a premium. Instead, many sit locked up, deteriorating, and now apparently generating unpaid bills that local councils are struggling to collect.