Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am extremely concerned about the new proposed residential-zoned land tax. I am in favour of a vacant site tax that encourages developers or those sitting on residentially-zoned land to engage in the process of development. I have reviewed the guidance from the Revenue on the tax in the last week and, in short, I was shocked. This tax is now a revenue-raising measure, as opposed to a tax that is designed to encourage stakeholders to develop land.

We have had a plethora of reports in recent months indicating that viability is now the key issue in housing. Commencements of developments continue to fall as a result of unviable permissions. Development plans have been adopted outside of Dublin and they continue to force developers to apply for permissions that are not viable. The planning regulator has advised the Minister on a number of locations to rezone lands to high density, rendering them unviable. The Tánaiste's Minister has adopted these changes knowing the effect will be to render the zoned lands undevelopable. If the Tánaiste does not believe me, then he might check with his own councillor, Anthony Barry from Carrigtwohill.

Willing developers trying their best to develop lands are being delayed for years by the dead hand of Government. What I mean by this is the dysfunctional planning departments in many county councils that are understaffed, the basket case that is An Bord Pleanála and the crazy zoning and house calculation targets set by the planning regulator. The planning process can take up to five years from the date of zoning and this is assuming the lands are serviced. It now can take up to eight months to get a preplanning meeting in County Wexford and I am sure it is the same with other local authorities. It takes a year to design a scheme, a year to get a decision, a further year, and possibly more, to get it approved by the board, if it was functioning, and another year to get a project through judicial reviews. During this entire process, the Government will have collected five years of land tax before development can be commenced.

Any tax such as this should provide reliefs for all of the above circumstances. The Government's tax does not. There should be a viability relief provision in the tax. The Exchequer already takes 52% of the cost of every new house. The Government is now proposing to possibly add up to 15% more to this figure by way of applying this new residential development land tax. The Government has also brought in a pyrite levy. Young people are at their wits end trying to buy houses. How can they ever expect to afford a home when the Government keeps applying taxes that are simply going to be passed on to the poor misfortunate first-time buyers? This is the death nail in the coffin of housing, if it continues.

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