Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 73:

In page 159, line 33, to delete “€3,000” and substitute “€10,000 plus the amount of tax due in respect of the vacant homes tax”.

I have spoken once regarding this amendment but I wish to come back in on it as I do not think the Minister responded to my question on the amendment.

We are introducing the principle of a tax on vacant property and it is a very important principle. I welcome that and thank the Minister for introducing it. Deputy Doherty said it was something Sinn Féin had talked about for many years. Indeed, in the Green Party, we have talked about this for many years. To introduce such measures, parties have to be willing to go into and form governments in difficult times and make unpopular and difficult decisions to be able to introduce good decisions like the vacant homes tax.

I agree with the Minister that it is not the only measure we have introduced. The zoned land tax introduced in last year's Finance Act is another one of those incentive land activation measures. We have tried to try to address this, especially in the town and urban and town centres, to stimulate development and growth of local economies and residential use. We also introduced the planning exemptions, that are now in place, for bringing buildings back into residential use. The Croí Cónaithe fund was introduced and provides up to €50,000 to a person to bring a derelict or vacant property back into residential use. In addition, the significant funding available through the retrofitting grant could offer another €25,000, bringing the amount to €75,000. If a person purchases a building at a good price, that is significant funding to get.

Our Town Centre First and Our Rural Future policies also support what we are trying to do. There has also been funding providing over the years through the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, and the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, which has brought much benefit to town centres across the country, especially in the urban public realm and civic areas.

I disagree with the Minister on the level of this tax, but that is something about which we are allowed to disagree. I am glad that will be constantly reviewed, because I will constantly push for the amount to be increased.

On dereliction, I hear what people are saying about the derelict sites levy and that it seems to be a failure. When local authority representatives came before the committee, they said the levy accrued is associated with the site. When the site is sold, the full amount of the levy is attached to the site. That is one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that if the site is sitting there for 20 years and no one has to pay any money for it, the tax is not doing its job.

The introduction of taxation on dereliction would be a much stronger measure. I agree with the Minister. The powers of the Revenue Commissioner are powers that people pay attention to. If an envelope is dropped through a letter box and the envelope has Revenue's harp on it, people pay a lot more attention to that than if it contained their local authority's coat of arms. We could do further work on introducing a dereliction tax based on the derelict sites levy. The local authorities could compile the register and Revenue could following up on the dereliction tax. On amendment No. 73, I am of the view that €3,000 is not enough of a disincentive. The amount should be €10,000.

On the exemptions in Chapter 4, I ask the Minister to consider a 12-month period. The Bill refers to a property being "actively marketed for rent" and "actively marketed for sale". We should apply a time limit to that. In our current situation, where there is massive demand for housing, I do not see a scenario in which a house that is genuinely actively marketed and has a reasonable price tag on it, would be on the market for more than six months. I know conveyancing can take time, but it should at least go to "Sale agreed" by that stage. There is a massive demand for housing and if a property is priced correctly, it will sell. The same also applies to rental properties. If I put up a "For sale" sign outside a house and include my email address or phone number, does that qualify as actively marketed?