Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 20, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:“13. The Minister shall within 6 months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on the introduction of a vacant home tax.”.

This amendment relates to the vacant home tax. We have had a lot of conversation around the housing crisis and the emergency the State has gone through in recent years, despite the fact that the Government fails to admit that it is an emergency. There is a huge number of vacant homes across the State in areas where there is high pressure for housing. Sinn Féin has, for quite a considerable period, called for a vacant home tax. Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson, Deputy Ó Broin, is leading the charge on this, among many other issues. It baffles me that we have not seen any progress on a vacant home tax during budget 2018. I am not arguing that every vacant property be taxed as a vacant home but at a time of huge crisis in the State and in areas of high housing pressure, it is immoral that there are vacant homes while 3,000 children and 5,000 adults are living in emergency accommodation. In the past few months, Irish citizens have died on our streets. People who are homeless are being forced to survive in the elements. We need incentives to get vacant homes back into operation.

The previous section, which we discussed, contains minor incentives such as allowing pre-letting expenditure to be written off against rental income. This is welcome and we support that amendment but it does not go far enough. We need to take out the big stick in respect of the properties lying vacant in inner city Dublin. The State needs to send a message to investors that if they leave their properties vacant at a time when there is massive pressure on the housing market and on supply, the State will tax them. This amendment proposes that within six months of the passing of the Act, a report would be prepared and laid before the Dáil on the subject of the introduction of a vacant homes tax. The amendment takes this form because the Opposition is not allowed to table an amendment to immediately introduce a vacant homes tax. If we had that ability I would have tabled an amendment to that effect. It is important the Minister and the Government move on this without delay as we have had enough announcements. We need serious action and I cannot understand why we are not considering a vacant home tax at this point in time.