Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan raised the issue of the local property tax in respect of vacancies. Vacancies and dereliction are two separate concepts. In a recent analysis, 96% of all apartments in Dublin were occupied despite all the commentary that lots of apartments are empty. I think that was in the Daft report; I will check the source of that. We need to be careful with our descriptions and definitions.

The principal purpose of the residential zoned land tax is to encourage the timely activation of zoned and serviced residential development land for housing in order that identified housing need can be met through the delivery of suitably located housing development. That will be an important factor to ensure we can get land at zone. That is one element of this.

The existing vacant sites levy has not been an effective mechanism for preventing land hoarding and speculation. There are many loopholes. The residential zoned land tax will be more broad based, with very few exemptions, and will be administered by Revenue rather than local authorities.

The Housing for All strategy includes an action for the Department of Finance to collect data on vacancy with a view to introducing a vacant property tax. The recent local property tax re-evaluation enabled Revenue to collect certain information on vacant properties in the local property tax return forms submitted by residential property owners. The information on vacancy in the local property tax returns in respect of approximately 2 million properties is currently being analysed by Revenue and together with the information from other available sources will be used to assess the merits and inform the design of a vacant property tax. That will be considered by the Minister with a view to the introduction of a residential property tax as soon as possible.

I do not have an update for Deputy O'Rourke. My Department is engaging with the Department for Transport in respect of the availability of funds under the shared island initiative. We are endeavouring to get everybody to agree on the importance of the connection provided by a Dublin to Derry air service.

In response to Deputy Durkan, there are certainly risks in terms of inflation, particularly in the cost of construction supplies. There is an inflationary cycle. It is a worry for many builders and that is why the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, changed the fixed contract to create a more co-operative framework to enable projects to be completed in the context of the significant level of inflation that has occurred and in order to ensure people continue to tender for projects. That is a concern. The cause is the war in Ukraine and there are further challenges ahead in that regard.

Deputy Bacik raised the issue of using the vacant tax and I dealt with that issue in an earlier reply. We must use the existing housing stock more effectively. We will continue to work on measures to incentivise the use of existing housing stock more broadly. I know that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, will have some important announcements in terms of the social protection code to the effect that people who let out their houses will not be disadvantaged in terms of various social welfare protections. We are constantly looking at ways to incentivise the use of existing housing stock.

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of income thresholds. The Minister indicated to the Deputy last week that the review is complete. The Minister should be in a position to comment on that.

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