Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is planned to bring in a vacant property tax in the budget, so it will, in essence, be legislated for this year and will most likely be applied from 2023. Revenue is collecting data at present as part of the current revaluation to find out why places are vacant. There is not very accurate data on how many vacant properties there are or why they are vacant. They can sometimes be vacant for a good reason.

I acknowledge the increase in house prices in the year gone by, but I will point out there is one area that is positive and that we should not allow to go without mention. It is that 31,000 new homes commenced construction in the past 12 months. That is a considerable turnaround on where we were only a few years ago. Some 31,000 homes are being built at the moment, which is an increase of 49% on last year. To see a 50% increase in new homes being built during a pandemic is very significant and perhaps gives us a little hope for the next couple of years.

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