Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
Inflationary Costs in the Construction Industry: Discussion
Mr. Pat Doyle:
Yes. Carrot-and-stick approaches could be used. The vacancy tax could be increased. If we leave out all those properties I mentioned, there were 24 owners interested and ready to go. The Government schemes are in place. Those are particularly appealing to small builders. In Athy in County Kildare, and I keep talking about County Kildare because I live there, we were able to bring back into use several prominent disused buildings and that work was done by small builders. The aspect we must look at here is the VAT rate. If these are purely social projects and we are revitalising disused buildings, getting rid of dereliction and helping the environment, then many boxes are ticked. In this context, there should be some type of reward or leverage in respect of reducing the VAT rate.
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