Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Only recently, the managing director of Hines, a fairly serious player in development in Ireland today, said that there is no question, when house prices go up 14%, that people sitting on that land are rubbing their hands, wondering why they would sell or build now because they will make another 14% next year. He says that there should be a land tax, plain and simple. If one has undeveloped land that is zoned as residential and it is not built then one pays 50%. Like that, one solves the housing crisis. This is the managing director of Hines. We are not dealing with landbanking and I know it is a difficult place to go but until we do so, some Government, some day, will do it. It will do more for how we supply housing in Ireland than anyone has ever done in this State. It would be fantastic. Does this Government have the appetite for it?

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