Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We need this urgently. Since 2016, Sinn Féin has called for the introduction of a vacant homes tax as another lever to increase supply, end the scourge of dereliction and put vacant homes back into use. In June 2017, my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, called on the Government to introduce a vacant property tax in budget 2018, a budget that was negotiated between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. That was four years ago. No vacant homes tax has been introduced in any year since. The Government published its Housing for All plan on 2 September without any firm commitments on introducing a vacant property tax to penalise those who allow residential properties to remain idle and unused. What has been committed to is a data collection exercise. Will the Minister confirm that he rejects the conclusions of the 2018 Indecon report that was the grounds for the Government's previous rejection of a vacant homes tax? If he plans to introduce this tax, will he spell out its design?

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