Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We are a decade into the worst housing crisis this country has ever seen, and the Government's vacant homes tax is 0.3%, three times the average local property tax rate. The increased wealth that somebody sitting on a derelict or vacant property can make just by sitting on it and paying that derisory tax is multiples of what the Government is asking them to pay. It does not offer any incentive or penalty in real terms for sitting on vacant property, and tens of thousands are doing so. There may be cases in which people need assistance - they may genuinely have difficulty refurbishing the property - so a carrot is fine, but there needs to be a stick for people who are wilfully sitting on empty property just watching an asset accumulate in value while others need a home.

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