Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being in and out of the meeting but I had to also attend a meeting of the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and the Environment.

The IFAC briefing earlier was scary for those of us who have been here long enough. The stories the representatives told us of "I will spend it because I have it economics" and betting the future on stable tax revenues that might not be realised is familiar and scary if some of the international downside risks bring us into financial difficulties again. There is a similar sense currently with it comes to our treatment of land. It is quite retro. Developers have full page advertisements in newspapers telling us what is good for us in the form of development. Fine Gael is relying almost entirely on the market to solve our housing problems, which, clearly, is not working. It is giving everything to developers in terms of lower standards and so on and developers are storing land again and playing the housing issue for their own interests.

As part of the wider consideration of property tax, will the Minister consider reintroducing the tax that we introduced in government, which put an 80% tax on any rezoning profits that would accrue to a landowner who would benefit from that land being rezoned in any way? The previous Government pulled that measure arguing it never raised any revenues and therefore why would we have it. However, it is an important check against improper speculative gains from land hoarding. With the commencement of new development plans in the councils, it would be completely improper for any of the benefits of that to accrue to developers. It might put some manners on the developers if they were not to see it as a speculative asset that is worth hoarding.

Second, will the Minister give the Land Development Agency compulsory purchase order powers, or consider giving it stronger powers in that respect? We need to build up bands to achieve the objectives of the national planning framework, with which I agree. The national development plan abandoned it - it is totally unsustainable - but the regional planning framework was very good. It is desirable to bring life back to the centre.

For example, in Dublin city, the Land Development Agency might look at making compulsory purchase orders in respect of brownfield or industrial estate lands. It could be effective to develop such lands in conjunction with other State assets. Will the Land Development Agency be given powers to make compulsory purchase orders and, if so, will it be possible to ensure that this will not just result in massive benefits or profits for landowners? The latter should not necessarily benefit as a result of compulsory purchase orders being made, any profit should accrue to the State. Is the Minister considering giving the Land Development Agency powers in this regard?

I have views on domestic property tax, which we tend to focus on and then miss the bigger picture. Not taxing the capital asset of land that is hoarded by speculators and not released onto the market is the core problem when it comes to housing. Is the Minister examining the possibility of strengthening the State's ability to recoup benefits that accrue from developments like the metro through the use of site levies and other mechanisms? Is the Minister looking at this as a third mechanism to even up the score and ensure that we do not just end up with a developer-led system but, rather, but a property management system designed to uphold the public good?