Derelict and vacancy

Combine official vacancy statistics with each council's published Derelict Sites Register. Councils must keep a register under the Derelict Sites Act 1990, but only some publish it as open data.

Related projects: Derelict Ireland (Alessio Coci), Derelict Sites (Rob Cross). Not affiliated; see ../_shared/inspirations.md.

Calling the tools

Steps name each operation as source/operation (e.g. data-gov-ie/datagov_search_datasets), using the typed tool name as the operation. On the default surface, run it with ireland_call, for example:

{ "source": "data-gov-ie", "operation": "datagov_search_datasets", "args": { "query": "derelict sites register" } }

If an argument shape is unclear, call ireland_describe with { "source", "operation" } first; it returns the schema and an example. search, fetch and nearby are top-level tools. If the server was added with ?toolsets=<ids> or ?toolsets=all, the typed tool can be called directly with the same args.

Steps

1. Vacancy numbers. Call cso/cso_get_table_metadata on VAC14 (local authority), VAC15 (LEA) or VAC16 (electoral division), then cso/cso_get_data for the area and the latest Q4: vacant dwellings, dwelling stock and vacancy rate. For six-year long-term vacancy, use VAC23 (local authority) or VAC24 (LEA).
2. Find the register. Call data-gov-ie/datagov_search_datasets with { "query": "derelict sites register <council>" }. Pick the dataset whose publisher is the council. If none, say the council does not publish it on data.gov.ie and point to the council website.
3. Inspect it. Call data-gov-ie/datagov_get_dataset with the dataset id. Report publisher, licence, last modified date, formats and resource links.
4. Read rows if possible. If a resource has datastore: true, call data-gov-ie/datagov_query_datastore with { "resource_id", "limit": 100 } (add q for a town). Count entries and summarise by area. If no resource is in the datastore, give the download link and do not guess the contents.
5. Dublin extras (optional). smart-dublin/smartdublin_search_datasets with "derelict" or "vacant".
6. Coverage note. List which councils you found registers for, so the user sees the gaps.

Output format

Illustrative layout; the values are examples, not data.

## Vacancy and dereliction: South Dublin County Council
**Vacancy (CSO VAC14, 2024Q4):** 1,234 vacant of 105,678 dwellings (1.2%)
**Derelict Sites Register:** published by SDCC on data.gov.ie (CSV, KML; updated 2026-09-22) — <link>
Entries readable here: 41 (datastore) | not in datastore: download link only
Sources
- CSO VAC14 (CC BY 4.0); Derelict Sites Register, South Dublin County Council (CC BY 4.0) via data.gov.ie

Rules

• Follow ../_shared/citations.md; name each council as the publisher.
• CSO vacancy uses low electricity consumption; it is not the same as dereliction. Say so.
• Do not publish or infer owners' names or personal details, even if a register contains them. Report site locations at the level the register gives and link to it.
• A site on a register is a legal designation by the council, not a finding by this skill.