Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have in recent weeks asked my officials to engage with Revenue. I wanted to be satisfied about the preparatory work and engagement Revenue is having with people it believes are within scope of the tax. It is important to point out there is a range of exemptions, for example, for homes that underwent structural works, homes being actively marketed, where the owner has passed away, where it is unoccupied due to illness or where it is a derelict or uninhabitable property. There are a range of exemptions and exclusions from the tax and I have sought to understand the reconciliation between the number of homes declared vacant in the census at approximately 166,000 with the estimates Revenue and the Department have provided of the number of homes within scope. The census data include 33,000 rental properties, about 17,500 that are classified for sale, about 23,000 vacant due to renovations and about 27,000 that are vacant as the former residents are deceased. They are embedded within the numbers declared vacant in the census. There are reconciling items but the bottom line is the tax is law. The Revenue Commissioners will do their job, as they always do, to enforce and collect the tax. Issues around the rate and scope of the tax fall to be considered as part of the budgetary process. I have been examining the details of the vacant homes tax in recent weeks but that is in the absence of data about the first round of returns because they only come in next month.

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