Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We have introduced a zoned land tax. This ensures it is not the landlords who are dictating and determining housing policy; it is the public good. It is not a revenue-raising measure. It will not raise a lot, but what is important is the signal it gives, the heat it will take out of land speculation and the changes it will make. It will give local government the powers to start making sure we have zoning that actually means something and we are not just massively overzoned with nothing happening on the land because some landowner has decided he or she will wait for land values to rise before doing something with the land. That will not happen anymore. From now on, with a 3% tax on zoned land, the value will be high. We all know those speculators are not going to just sit and pay that tax without an income stream to cover it on the other side.

If we want to increase and go further on the social welfare measures, then we have to raise tax. We are from the left because we believe in property tax and zoned land tax as a way of meeting our needs. That is what this budget does. However, more than anything else, it gives us a chance to avoid what has been the curse of this country for so long, namely, the mad, cyclical up and down, boom and bust.

Getting our current spending right, and increasing it if we increase taxes, will give us the room to really expand and go massive on building homes, healthcare and climate resolutions for our country.

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