Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of the residential zoned land tax. It has created a huge amount of confusion for many farmers who have land which is adjacent to or inside the boundaries of these local area plans. In Galway, the Tuam local area plan is now being done for the next five years. We have the same thing in Ballinasloe, Gort and a few other places. The people who own these lands are farming the lands, or they at least have farmers who are farming them. Their concern is these lands are now being put on public display as being zoned or whatever. There has been no consultation or they are not being notified that these lands are being zoned. What is the position on taxing farmers who are farming their land, need the land for their farming enterprise and are not hoarding the land to make money or profit on it? Where there is land which is zoned phase 1 or phase 2, will the Tánaiste clarify that phase 2 land is not liable to this tax because the land will not be used or developed until phase 1 is completed? There seems to be huge confusion and it is causing a lot of stress.

I am getting a lot of representations from people who have land in these areas, wondering what they should do, what they can do and where they can get information. The local authority will tell them it does not know what is happening until the end of the year because it is a Revenue issue. We need to get clarity for people who own land who are in this position. There are some people who might not even be in the country who own land who will never know that it has been zoned because they are some place else, they have emigrated or whatever. There is a huge uncertainty and confusion, and then, like everything else, there is a lot of information going around which cannot be validated. In the interest of clarity, will the Tánaiste explain what is going to happen with all of this?

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