Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Vice Chairman is right on all of those points. We are looking for a report on the vacant property tax. The Government's Housing for All plan kicks the can down the road for another year on vacant property tax. At the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage in September, Department of Finance officials cited analysis by GeoDirectory which showed that in quarter 2 of 2021, there was 92,000 vacant properties. Some 4.5% of homes lay vacant in June of this year. Research shows we have the tenth highest vacancy rate in the world, which is a national scandal. Dereliction and allowing properties to lie empty is an act of vandalism against the public good. It can be seen in this city where apartments lie empty and in other areas where there is significant pressure in terms of housing need.

We were calling for a vacant property tax in 2016, as another lever that could be introduced to end the scourge of dereliction. It has not been brought forward by the Government. In 2017, my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, argued for it in the context of that year's budget. That was four years ago. The Housing for All plan was published in September 2021, without any firm commitment to introducing a vacant property tax to penalise those who would allow residential properties to remain idle and unused. It has committed to a data collection exercise.

The Minister and the committee will be familiar with my raising the issue of the need for a local property tax on Committee Stage of the Finance Bill in 2018. In response, the Minister cited the Indecon report from September 2018 arguing against its introduction. Can the Minister now confirm he rejects the conclusions of that report? Can he now confirm he does support the introduction of a vacant property tax? Can he explain to the committee why he has not decided to introduce a vacant property tax in each of the past five years in which we have been calling for him to commit to one? I ask the Minister to expedite the introduction of the vacant property tax without delay.