Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

The Deputy has requested a report on the budget and housing market effects of tax reliefs and incentives available to property developers and on alternative approaches to achieving housing supply objectives without such tax expenditures.

Targeted tax incentives to encourage developers to build more apartments and increased capital investment in infrastructure to support new schemes form the main housing measures of budget 2026. I would remind the Deputy that all decisions regarding taxation measures must have regard to the sound management of the public finances and my Department's tax expenditure guidelines. The guidelines make clear that any policy proposal that involves tax expenditures should only occur in limited circumstances where there are demonstrable market failures and where a tax-based incentive is more efficient than a direct expenditure intervention.

Where data are available in relation to the Exchequer cost of tax relief for housing market development, these data are publicly available and included in the Department of Finance report on tax expenditures, published in July 2025 in advance of the budget last month, as well as Revenue's publication on the cost of tax measures.

I note that, as part of the normal schedule of tax expenditure reviews, my Department has undertaken a review of the residential development refund scheme, which is the partial refund of stamp duty paid on the building of residential dwelling units, in light of its sunset clause of the end of this year. In 2024, the Exchequer cost was estimated to be €28.1 million, up from €21.2 million in 2023.

The most recent independent review of the help to buy scheme was conducted by external consultants Mazars in 2022 with an Exchequer cost estimate of €185.2 million in 2023 and €225.5 million in 2024. The Department, with support from Revenue, will continue to monitor the operation of this and all housing market incentive schemes and will continue to liaise with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with regard to the contribution of all measures in complementing the Government's housing policy goals.

Having regard to the fact that indicative costings have already been prepared and there is ongoing work to improve the approach to assessing the fiscal and housing market effects of tax reliefs and incentives available to the private sector, I do not believe an additional report is necessary at this time. Therefore, I cannot accept the amendment.

Alternative approaches to achieving housing supply objectives without such tax measures are a matter for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I made reference to many of those measures in the exchanges we had earlier on the previous section of the Bill.

For the reasons outlined, I do not propose to accept this amendment.