John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome this Bill put forward by Deputy Wallace and welcome the opportunity to speak on it. I am fully supportive of my party's decision to back this Bill. For many years, the political system has grappled unsuccessfully with vacant sites in terms of incentivising people who owned zoned land to develop that land. That is something this Bill very much tries to grapple with. There are many aspects of the Bill that I believe will bring about significant and positive improvements.

Another issue concerns vacant houses. According to the last census, we are looking at 200,000 unaccompanied and unused houses in the State. The Government has tried various measures such as the repair and lease scheme, which is something I greatly supported. A tax-free loan of €40,000 was offered to people to do up their properties and give them back to the local authority over a ten, 15 or 20-year period. For whatever reason, there has been no uptake. I find it difficult to understand because I would have thought that if one incentivises people to do something, they will do it but for whatever reason, it has not worked. I think we need to look into that and try to find a resolution because if we could get even 10% of the 200,000 properties turned over in a very relatively short period of time, we would go a long way towards solving much of the emergency housing difficulties we have. Thinking about what has worked and what has not worked over time, one thing that has always seemed to work is providing some sort of tax incentive to property owners to develop or do up property. It might not be the most popular option, particularly among my left-wing colleagues, but at the end of the day, tax incentives do seem to bring about the required result. I think it is something we might look at. Equally, we could look at a tax penalty for those who have vacant houses and allow them to be left unused and continue to build up to that stock. In his deliberations over this particular Bill, I ask the Minister of State to look at that issue as well and to try to come up with some incentive that will get those who own vacant properties to do them up. A tax incentive is something that should be looked at in great detail.

Perhaps some sort of tax initiative to encourage those who own vacant sites to develop them could be considered. In the 1980s and early 1990s when there was nothing happening in the property market, the section 23 initiative worked very well until it was over-used and abused but if we could control such initiatives and maximise them, there is something in it that can work very well. I believe there is investment money out there and there is certainly the capacity in the system to take the development so I ask the Minister of State to consider those points.

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