Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is because of how much time it will take to assemble the land register and to allow the appeals process for the land, which I am advised is necessary in order to maintain the constitutionality of the tax. What that means, specifically, is it will take until sometime next year to put together the land maps that will show land that is subject to this tax, in other words, land that has zoning enabling homes to be built on it that are not being built, land that is either serviceable or serviced and that is not contaminated. We believe it would take a good part of the first half of next year for the local authorities to do that. I have been advised there needs to be an appeals process put in place after that to allow the status of that land to be queried and possibly challenged. That then requires a supplementary map to be produced, which will go into the following year, with the tax then being levied in May of the year after that.