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

We are in the middle of a housing emergency, as the Deputy well knows. A key learning from the local property tax is that if we are to enforce a measure nationally, that it is important it would have a clear rate with few exemptions, and that is what we are doing here. If we were to adopt a model of having a different tax for different parts of the country, that would undermine its effectiveness, pose a major challenge in implementing it and would give rise to a phenomenal number of anomalies that over time could run the risk of undermining the tax.

The Deputy's concluding questions are the reason we need the run-in period, of which he was earlier critical. We need to allow for an adequate appeals procedure for landowners who may not be satisfied to be subject to this tax. We need to allow them the time to act and to allow local authorities the time to deal with appeals submitted to them.