Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Social Democrats, and especially Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. Deputy Gannon was just talking about solutions and this is a straightforward solution. The Government recognises a vacant property tax is a tool that can be used to get properties back in circulation. The big difference is the Government has gone for a 0.3% tax, whereas the motion before us calls for 10%. That is not an extreme rate, because in France there is a vacant property tax that starts at 10% and rises to 15% of the annual rental income of a property. That is a vacancy tax.

Vacancy is an issue plaguing every community. When we look at the latest CSO figures, the data suggest that in some parts of my constituency, in the heart of Cork city, one in five homes is empty. Does the Minister seriously think 0.3% is going to deter the people who are making profit? It was said earlier that when you take away the increase in house prices and take the levy away, landlords and especially land hoarders can sit idly by and watch their investments go up in value. In my constituency new houses are being built next to empty, boarded-up ones. It is madness. We listen to the Government talking about the climate crisis and how we all need to work. Why then is the Government not doing more to get existing buildings into use? Existing buildings delivered as housing make for more sustainable housing. It is better for the environment, better for the communities and it delivers the housing much more quickly. We need to build homes and I support that 100%. However, we also need to turn the vacant homes we have into homes right now.

When the Government announced a vacant homes tax last year, Sinn Féin welcomed it. Then we saw the detail. As with so many things with this Government, just as it is about to do something good it does a U-turn or makes a half-hearted effort, which is what its vacant homes tax was. Sinn Féin believes vacant homes represent a significant opportunity to deliver publicly-owned homes for workers and families. The CSO figure is 166,000 vacant homes. GeoDirectory reports 83,000 homes. The Minister quoted the figure of 57,000 from the Revenue based on the local property tax. Maybe he is not aware of this, but people filling out their local property tax return were under no compulsion to state whether their property was vacant. People were asked about it and requested to fill it in, but what about all the people who did not? The Minister is an intelligent man. He knows we cannot have 57,000 vacant homes according to the Revenue, 83,000 according to GeoDirectory and 166,000 according to the CSO. Is he saying the CSO is wrong, because someone suggested that in here a couple of weeks ago and there was uproar?

Sinn Féin will deliver 4,000 vacant homes every year. We believe that is a figure that is deliverable. Alongside this, we would encourage people to utilise the empty homes. Some of this would be through a carrot, in the form of funds being made available to renovate homes, but we must also have a stick. We currently have a derelict sites levy of 7%, yet €12 million of that was not collected in 2021. How can the Minister justify a derelict sites levy at 7% and a vacant homes levy at 0.3%? We want to see homes returned. This Government made the decision to lift the ban on evictions. I call on it to reinstate it and use the solution Deputy Cian O'Callaghan has brought forward to deliver homes in the coming months. The Minister's Government will be remembered as the one that evicted people. This is a solution I implore him to take on board.

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