Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will address Deputy Mulherin's concerns first. There are several strict criteria that must be adhered to for any designation to happen. This will be in the control of the local authority. One of the criteria is that a project must be economically viable. I assure the Deputy that no penal imposition will happen as a result of this Bill, as there are enough checks and balances within the Bill to address the issue and give councillors the flexibility to understand if there are economic viability issues. I know it is a different section to what we are discussing but I draw the Deputy's attention to section 14(b), dealing with determination of zero market value, which states, "the site is situated on contaminated lands and the estimated costs of remedial works necessary in order to use or develop the site exceed the market value of the site itself". There are checks and balances to protect the people mentioned by the Deputy. In short, we are targeting high-potential sites in highly serviced areas with much demand for housing. There are strict criteria and strong processes before a site would be designated. There is due process and time for owners of sites to provide reasons a site should or should not be developed.

We are opposing the amendment. The criteria in section 5 set out the principles and policies underpinning the terms "residential" and "regeneration land". The proposed amendments remove essential elements of the criteria to be applied in determining what is and what is not a vacant site. Without such criteria, there is no justification for designating which sites in residential and regeneration land should be targeted for the application of the levy. These are important justifications underpinning the vacant site levy measure aimed at incentivising the development of high-potential vacant sites in central urban areas for housing and regeneration purposes. The legislation would lack teeth without these criteria. The purpose of the criteria outlined in the Bill in this regard is to focus on the appropriate range of sites to be potentially subject to the levy, with a view to strengthening the public interest and common good justification of the levy.