Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Most Deputies will agree with a vacant home tax in principle. We need to keep an eye on a certain matter, though, especially in respect of rural parts of Ireland where, for example, an elderly person's family member built a house that is no longer in great nick. If we do not include provisos to address situations like that, we will be levying taxes on people who receive no benefit from the houses.

The number of vacant houses around the country is incredible. We should do more and people need to be pushed to ensure that those houses are put into use, but we must be mindful of areas where there is no rental need - unfortunately, might I add. I wish there was such a need. We must be mindful of situations where a family has a new house built over the road or an elderly person dies in an old house. The councils had a system to address this if a house did not have running water or electricity.

See this speech in context