Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The report published this morning by the Banking and Payment Federation of Ireland, BPFI, confirms what we already know, which is that the housing policy of the Government is failing abysmally. The BPFI analysis is stark. Since 2010, rents in Ireland have soared by a whopping 82% compared with an EU average of 18% for the same period. This rip-off of Ireland's renters has happened on the watch of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Crazy rents are robbing tenants of any hope of getting a deposit together to buy their own homes and is trapping them in an extortionate nightmare.

Today’s report also highlights that housing supply is nowhere near keeping up with population growth. It states our population is growing at three times the rate of housing supply. Since 2011, the State's population has grown by 500,000 but only 130,000 housing units were added in this time. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been getting it wrong on for more than a decade and they are still getting it wrong now. Serious concerns are also raised regarding the decline in housing commencements throughout the State. In the middle of a housing emergency, the rate of housing construction is falling. Things are bad now but unless the Government brings the urgency and ambition required, things will get a whole lot worse.

We have repeatedly told the Government that its targets for social and affordable housing are far too low. Its targets are a drop in the ocean and it is not even meeting them. It is not just Sinn Féin saying this; it is housing organisations on the front line of this emergency and officials in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage who recently stated that the Government has seriously underestimated its housing targets.

Sadly, many of our young people now look to a life beyond Ireland. The Central Statistics Office tells us nearly half of renters are considering emigrating because of the crippling cost of living. Many mothers and fathers will spend this Christmas watching their sons and daughters pack their bags for Australia and Canada. Is it any wonder when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael remain wedded to policies that put cuckoo funds and wealthy investors above young people's need to get a decent start? This is so wrong. We need our young people here at home. We need their talent, energy and ideas. What else can we expect of them when they cannot put a roof over their heads in Ireland?

What other option do they really have, when the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, says that we do not have a housing emergency? Deimhníonn tuarascáil an BPFI dáiríreacht na héigeandála tithíochta. Is féidir le hAirí oifigí a mhalartú mas mian leo. Chun difríocht a dhéanamh i ndáiríre, tá athrú polasaithe tithíochta fiúntach ag teastáil go práinneach.

Today’s report lays it out plainly. It turns out that, despite the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, lecturing our young people, in fact the grass is greener elsewhere, especially for renters. There has been an 82% rent hike in Ireland versus an average of 18% across the EU. That is some punch in the gut for renters. It is a rip-off on a massive scale and yet the Government does nothing about it. Does the Minister now accept that it is time for the Government to intervene decisively, to put a month’s rent back into renters’ pockets through a refundable tax credit and finally to ban rent increases for three years?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy McDonald for raising the BPFI report today, which confirms that we face an enormous challenge in relation to housing. The Government has been upfront and honest about the scale of that challenge. That is why we brought forward the Housing for All plan, which is showing significant signs of progress in relation to supply overall, which will reach the highest level for a long number of years. Close to 28,000 homes were built in the 12 months to the end of September. Nearly 21,000 homes were built in the first nine months of the year, which is more than the entirety of the previous year. As the Deputy knows, this year, overall under the Housing for All plan, the target is 24,600 units. We now expect that we will achieve over 26,000 units this year, which will be the highest level of output since 2008. There were more than 16,000 first-time buyers in the last 12 months, which is the highest number since 2007 and represents a third of all home purchases. Construction on over 26,600 homes commenced in the year to October.

While acknowledging the scale of the challenge we face, it is also only fair and proper that we acknowledge the fact that housing output is increasing significantly. There are headwinds in the private sector. We have been honest about that when it comes to labour shortages, which we are seeking to address through our apprenticeship system and through the employment permit system. There are challenges in relation to construction materials inflation, which we are again seeking to address through the inflation co-operation framework that is in place. There are challenges in relation to our planning system and a new comprehensive planning Bill will be brought into this House shortly. I hope it will meet with support across this House.

Many renters aspire to own their own home at some point in time. While not all of them do, many of them do. For those who do, we have introduced a whole range of new initiatives, including the first home scheme, FHS, shared equity scheme. Almost 1,000 applications have now been received and 200 contracts have now been executed. We have extended the help to buy scheme, which has helped 35,000 first-time buyers to get on the property ladder. We are targeting 5,000 new affordable homes through the Land Development Agency, LDA, by 2026. As the Deputy will know, they are engaging with the market in relation to Project Tosaigh and in particular in relation to sites where planning permission is in place but where there are viability challenges at this point in time. We have also empowered local authorities to invest through land purchase in order to bring forward affordable purchase schemes and they are doing that. Do we need more? Of course, we need more. The Government is providing a record amount of resources. For once in our nation's history, funding is not really the constraint. We need the public system to deliver and we need to partner with the private sector to make sure that it maximises output. The Deputy has raised particular issues around renters and we acknowledge that this is the case for new rental agreements. This is what the data represents because existing tenants have protections under the rent pressure zone, RPZ, system where the rent increase is capped at 2%.

Those renters should also know is what Sinn Féin is planning. Sinn Féin is planning a new tax of €400 on rental properties. It is planning to increase income tax on landlords, many of whom have incomes of over €100,000. It wants to increase income tax on them. For landlords with multiple properties and who may incur significant capital gains tax, Sinn Féin wants to increase capital gains tax.

At a time we need to increase the supply of rental accommodation, through what the State is doing directly but also by retaining existing investment in the market and attracting new investment, Sinn Féin's policies would further drive landlords out of the market. The Deputy needs to be honest about that.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Let me tell the Minister this: the Government's policies are driving an entire generation of our young people to Perth, Sydney, Toronto and beyond.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Not true.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Not true.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is what the Government is at. I will tell the Minister what our policies will do: our approach will move heaven and earth to keep those young people at home or, if they have gone away, to give them an opportunity to come back. The Minister describes this as a significant challenge. Let us get the language right. This is an emergency and a disaster for families in their real, lived lives and the Government has dragged its feet-----

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Not true.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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It comes in here week after week to tell fairy tales and make-believe, imagining its approach is working, when it is plainly failing. I drew the Minister's attention to the distinction between an 82% growth in rents as against 18%, which is the EU average and I asked how the Government would respond to that

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Some 3,000 properties.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I have given the Minister two ideas: one is a refundable tax credit for renters to put a month's rent back in their pockets and reduce rents; and a complete and effective ban on rent increases. Will the Minister deal with those two issues?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy well knows, we have brought in emergency measures in the context of this winter, which have been approved by this House and are really needed. The reason we have such a level of growth in new rental prices is the mismatch between supply and demand. That is why the Government's core focus is on increasing supply of all kinds of housing, that is, affordable purchase, cost-rental and public housing on a scale the like of which we have not seen for a very long time in this country. The Government is also working with the private sector to alleviate some of the blockages that are there preventing supply-----

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Completions are down.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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------getting to the level we need it to get to. This is the only side of the House that has a fully-funded multi-annual plan for housing and we are delivering the increase in the units.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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It is not working.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister does not even believe that.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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All of the renters who aspire to home ownership look to help to buy, the first home scheme and the LDA, all of which Sinn Féin has opposed. The Deputy's answer with regard to rental is to increase tax with a new tax on rental properties, increased tax for landlords and an income tax on capital gains. That is the Deputy's answer to attracting new investment to Ireland and that will not work.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister does not even believe it.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I too will raise BPFI report. We know from the report that rents in Ireland have increased by more than four times the EU average over the past 12 years. Those figures absolutely lay bare the extent of the crisis in this country. Under the Government, the fact is that things are getting worse. Rents, house prices and homelessness are all at record levels and are continuing to exponentially grow. Meanwhile, mortgage approvals have hit their lowest level in the past 17 months. Construction in the three months to September was down a massive 22% compared to the same period last year. This crisis is having disastrous consequences for every aspect of life in Ireland.

To give the Minister just one example, we have a teacher recruitment crisis in our schools, in large part because teachers can no longer afford the housing costs in Dublin or other urban areas. The Social Democrats will bring forward a motion on that issue tomorrow to propose solutions I hope the Government will adopt. One of the proposals relates to vacant homes. We have been waiting for a vacant homes tax to be introduced since it was first mooted by Fine Gael in 2016, which is six years ago. A proper vacant homes tax can be the fastest, cheapest and most sustainable means of bringing additional homes into use.

Regrettably, the vacant homes tax the Government has finally proposed is so low as to be laughable.

The Government has set the rate at just 0.3% of the value of a property. Does the Minister know that house prices increased by 10.8% in the past year? If the value of a home will increase by more than 10% if it is left vacant, how on earth is a tax of 0.3% an incentive to bring it back into use? Let us take an example of a home that is worth €400,000, which is less than the average price of a Dublin home. Under the Government's plans, the vacant homes tax will be charged at a rate of €1,215 per annum for the next year, but the value of the home will increase by €43,200 over the same period. Sitting on it will still earn people almost €42,000 even after they pay the pathetically low rate of vacant homes tax the Government has introduced. Will the Minister and the Government, for once, take this housing crisis seriously and implement a measure that will make a big difference? He will soon be Minister for Finance for the next two years. I implore him to implement a punitive vacant homes tax. The Social Democrats have proposed a rate of 10% of the value of the home. Will the Minister urgently review the rate of this tax and raise it to a meaningful level?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Making better use of existing stock has to be an important part of the overall solution, given the scale of the housing challenge we face. We know that, with the best will in the world, building new homes takes time, with the various stages that have to be gone through, including planning, procurement, bringing services to land, waterways, water, other infrastructure and so on. We have an issue with the underutilisation of existing stock, including in our towns, villages and cities. If one walks around many of our towns and cities and looks overhead at buildings at night, one does not really see people living there. That sets us apart from many other European cities. We have to find ways to make better use of existing stock. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has brought forward a range of new proposals, including the Croí Cónaithe special grant of €30,000 for vacant properties, going up to €50,000 if the properties are derelict. He has extended that beyond towns into rural areas and cities too.

When it comes to the issue of properties that are fully vacant, the vacant homes tax is a significant intervention by Government. That is the first time that such a tax has been imposed. One can argue about the rate or the scope but we utilised the information that has been gathered by the Revenue Commissioners from the returns made in respect of the local property tax to construct a new tax and intervention with a view to ensuring that as many of those properties as possible come back into use and become available in the market where there is such a shortfall.

When it comes to local authority homes, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has brought 5,000 social homes back into use under the voids programme. Where the State is directly in control of these homes, through our local authorities, we have accelerated the reinstatement of the homes to get them back into use. A further 2,000 are planned for this year, which is particularly important. We have various instruments, and through our local authorities, the Derelict Sites Act 1990 and the derelict sites register, which needs further work because we have to make sure that where properties are derelict, the penalty has to be significant to make sure they are brought back into play. We now have a new tax in respect of vacant homes, which will play a part in encouraging the owners of those properties to make them available. Having said that, there will always be legitimate reasons for some homes being vacant. We have made changes to the fair deal scheme to ensure that properties can be rented out and that the income is not a penalty in respect of the financial assessment for the scheme. We will continue to work on that. I look forward to the debate on the Social Democrats' motion. The Government will consider any constructive measure that the Deputy or anyone else in this House has to increase the supply of housing stock.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I did not ask the Minister about local authority voids. That is something entirely different. I asked him about the vacant homes tax and the fact that tens of thousands of homes are lying idle at the moment.

They are the most effective way to increase the stock of houses available to our young people, many of whom currently have no choice but to go abroad. Two out of three nurses are planning on emigrating and 61% of our primary schools are understaffed. This is down to the high cost of housing. I asked the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, on what basis he thinks a person who can continue to sit on a vacant property and benefit to the tune of €40,000 next year would be influenced to bring that home into use and make it available as a result of a tax of €1,200. It does not make any sense whatsoever. When I queried the Minister on this all he could say was it is three times the property tax rate.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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That is meaningless. When the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform becomes Minister for Finance in two weeks' time, will he undertake to review the level of this tax-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The time is up.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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-----and introduce a proper vacant homes tax?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am conscious this is a new tax that has just been legislated for in the Finance Bill. It is set, as the Deputy knows, at three times the property's existing base local property tax, LPT, rate. As is always the case with a new tax, we will keep the rate under review and see if it is having the desired effect. The whole purpose of this new tax, which the Oireachtas has now legislated for, is to help bring more stock back into active use. That is what we are all seeking to do in this House. We have various instruments to do that. Some of these are the carrot, in the form of the grants available to tackle vacancy and dereliction, and some of it is on the taxation side, the stick, whether-----

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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That is not a scheme. That is tokenism.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----it be a derelict sites tax or, for the first time ever, a new vacant homes tax. The imperative is to get this up and running. We will monitor the impact to see the extent to which it is having a beneficial effect. It will have some but when it comes to the specific rate, we will be keeping that under review.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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The Government just is not serious.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Saturday, 17 December is the day the new Taoiseach will be elected. The Cost of Living Coalition has called a demonstration outside the Dáil for that day. It is a very broad group of trade unions, students unions, disability groups, anti-poverty and housing groups and believes we do not need a new Taoiseach but a new Government. If there was not enough evidence of that need, we have had further evidence of it today with the Bank and Payments Federation Ireland, BPFI, report that shames this Government. It shows we have seen four and a half times the rate of increase in rents when compared with the rest of Europe. This has resulted in average rents in my area of €2,400 and average rents in Dublin of €2,200. These are totally unaffordable for a whole generation of young and working people, who are now being driven out of the country. On top of that, we had the Goodbody report last week that showed commencements of new-build apartments and houses have dropped very significantly in the last few months. I do not know how the Minister can say Housing for All is working. Apartment commencements have dropped by 29% and house commencements by 23%.

We got another report today from Citizens Information and the Disability Federation of Ireland showing that people with disabilities, mental health problems and other very ill and vulnerable people are not being given anything like appropriate housing. I raised last week how it is taking about a year for a person in my area to get a medical assessment of housing need. Very sick and vulnerable people are not being housed at all or are being put in utterly inappropriate conditions.

Against this background, it is beyond belief that at the end of this year, the Government will have underspent the housing budget by €700 million and it claims this is a success for the Housing for All plan. I got some figures from Mel Reynolds, the housing commentator, this week. I will put these to the Minister as questions he might wonder about the answers to. Does he know how many new council houses Dublin City Council built in the first half of this year? Guess.

It was zero. Does the Minister know how many new council houses Fingal County Council built in the first six months of this year?

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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That is not including AHBs.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It was zero. Does he know how many Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council built in the first six months of this year? Zero. Does he know how many South Dublin County Council built in the first six months of this year? Zero. Is the Minister serious in claiming his Government's plan is a success when it has failed to spend nearly €750 million against a housing crisis of this scale and when, in the epicentre of the housing crisis, the four Dublin local authorities built no new council houses?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Supply is increasing. That is a fact. The Government is focused, collectively, on implementing all strands of Housing for All. New public stock is not just delivered by our local authorities. It is also delivered by approved housing bodies and the LDA. The question is, when it comes to this House making decisions, which might be difficult ones where trade-offs are involved in our planning system, will the Deputy support the new consolidated planning Bill that will be brought before this House with a view to accelerating the delivery of the homes we all want and that he says he wants as well? Will he call on people to stop objecting to developments where appropriate developments are being proposed by local authorities, the LDA or the private sector? The Deputy is shaking his head but these are the relevant facts that really matter when it comes to getting construction sites under way all over the country.

Much has been said in the last ten or 15 minutes about the issue of targets, whether we are building enough homes and the extent to which the population has increased significantly. It is worth making the point that the targets in Housing for All were set on the basis of a housing need and demand assessment informed by the ESRI, which was engaged to undertake independent research. Since then the results of the census, at a headline level, have been published by the CSO. It is intended to review the underpinning research and update the tool when the full census data become available from the CSO next year. It should also be said that the preliminary census results for 2022 will show our population at 5.1 million, indicating that the population of Ireland and the consequent overall level of national housing demand is broadly in line with that projected by the ESRI for the same year. For people to say the targets in Housing for All are completely inaccurate and out of date is not backed up by the facts or the results of the census. When we have those full results, we will do a reassessment of what the revised projection should be to ensure the homes are delivered.

The issue we have to tackle here is ensuring there is sufficient capacity in the system, in our public system and across the private sector, to deliver the homes our people need all over Ireland. The Government is leading on this issue through a range of different initiatives. More public homes are being built than at any point in recent history. We have new affordable housing schemes that are now up and running. We have extended the help to buy scheme and we have brought in the first home shared equity scheme, through which transactions are now getting completed and people are purchasing homes which would not otherwise have been possible without the intervention and direct involvement of the State.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Planning permissions are not the issue in the housing crisis. We have 80,000 planning permissions granted at the moment. The problem is that those in the private sector has no interest in solving this crisis. Why would it when it can command record house prices and record rents? It has a vested interest in not solving the crisis because if there was lots of cheap accommodation it could not make such big profits. The Minister claims, against that background where the State has to intervene, with catastrophic market failure causing human misery for tens of thousands of people affected by this housing crisis, that public housing is ramping up. I just gave him the facts. In the first six months of 2022, in the teeth of this crisis, the four Dublin local authorities built no new council houses. The Government has failed to spend €700 million that was allocated for housing. What is the Government going to do about that? What is it going to do to ramp up the construction of local authority housing? What is it going to do with that €700 million? Will it, for example, purchase multi-unit complexes like Tathony House, St. Helen's Court, the buildings on Rathmines Road Lower, or other places where people face eviction?

Will it stop evictions happening while we face this emergency?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The time is up please, Deputy.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Will it control rents and make them affordable? Will it deliver public housing via our local authorities whose job it is to do so?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, we will. Deputy Boyd Barrett should also put the full facts on the record when he talks about the performance of the local authorities in Dublin. The four Dublin local authorities currently have 2,000 homes under construction on various sites and in excess of 3,700 others in the pipeline for delivery at this point in time. Shanganagh is under way. The LDA is now building homes - public housing and affordable cost rental housing - for the first time through the direct involvement of the State.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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For the first time in 15 years.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is also providing €100 million to local authorities to help them clear legacy debt. This will assist in accelerating the delivery of social homes on sites that local authorities own by taking away the debt related to them. He is also putting in place a fund for the Housing Agency to assist it in assembling land banks around the country so that we can accelerate the delivery of public homes all over Ireland.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I raise the issue of the residential zoned land tax and its implications for family farms around the country. Farmers are private landowners. They are not builders. They own the land to farm it and try to make a living from it. They do not hoard it as an investment. The fact that farmers are completely unaware that some of their land is being zoned for residential purposes leaves them in a very precarious predicament. In Killarney, of more than 200 acres of land zoned for residential use, only around ten acres are being built on each year. Some farmers will find themselves paying this tax for the next 20 years until the land is used up.

The way land is being zoned is through a desktop study being done by the local authorities. They are not looking on the ground or talking to owners to see whether the land will become available. In many small rural towns around the country, farmers are farming right up to the town boundaries and beyond. They are now being caught up in this residential tax, even though they are not hoarding land. Their land has been zoned by the local authority without their knowledge or consent. They are fearful that they will be paying tax from money they are trying to eke out of the land in order to stave off something that is beyond their control.

The farming organisations are very concerned about this. More to the point, they have tried to discuss it with different Departments. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage tells them it is an issue for the Revenue Commissioners and the Revenue Commissioners tell them that it is a local authority housing issue. At this stage we need clarity from the Minister and we also need to make sure that no matter what happens, a farmer who is making a living from land, be it zoned for residential development or not, is not liable to a residential tax on the land. It is important we do that and provide a derogation so that farmers do not have to pay the tax.

In places where local area plans are being done, there is zone 1 and zone 2 zoning. Zone 1 is land which is going to be used first and zone 2 is land that will be used when zone 1 is complete. That never happens yet farmers will find themselves in a position where they are paying this unjust tax. I ask the Government to look at this and make it clear, once and for all, that farmers who can produce a herd number and show they are functional farmers on the land will not be liable for any tax. That must be made abundantly clear to all farmers who at this stage are worried sick about what they may face when this tax is brought in.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Canney for raising this matter. In many ways it speaks to the issue we have been discussing for the past half an hour. Everyone agrees there is a housing crisis and we face a huge challenge to deliver homes all over the country. However, as soon as something is proposed that is an imposition on somebody, in some cases a major imposition, then objections are raised, progress is stalled and barriers are put in the way. That is the fundamental choice we face as a country.

On this issue, when locally elected members agree on their development plan and decide, having taken advice on board, that a land bank is suitable and appropriate for development and is situated in an area where land is serviced and close to amenities and so on, it is to be expected that the Government will seek to ensure that, wherever possible, that land bank is developed in accordance with the locally adopted county development plan. Having said that, there is of course a mechanism for this tax to be avoided.

As the Deputy knows, the mapping process is now at an advanced stage. It involves public notification of draft and supplemental maps with a related national and local communications campaign which is under way. Landowners and interested parties may make submissions to the local authority. Landowners can appeal the decision of the local authority to retain their land on the map to An Bord Pleanála. As a once-off provision during 2022 and 2023, landowners may also request the local authority to rezone their land to remove it from the scope of the tax. It is open to anyone who is directly affected by this tax that comes into being in 2024 to have their land bank removed from the scope of the tax.

We cannot have it every way. People cannot have their land zoned and keep the zoning into the future while, at the same time, avoid the tax that is intended to stimulate supply. It goes back to the heart of the issue we have been discussing for the past 30 minutes or so because there has been a long build-up to this measure. As Members know, it was legislated for in the Finance Act 2021. The tax measure will be levied at 3% of the market value of the zoned land. The local authorities have gone through an extensive mapping process at this point. In regard to land in agricultural use specifically, only farming land which is zoned solely or primarily for residential purposes will be in scope. Agricultural land zoned for a mixture of uses, including residential, is not in scope as farming is a trade or profession benefiting from an exemption in the legislation. In that respect and in regard to the provision that is there, a facility is being provided for a proposal to be made for land to be dezoned, thereby completely taking a land bank out of this particular new tax. We believe that this is a fair and proportionate intervention by the State given the scale of the challenge we face to bring newly zoned land to the market whereby homes can be built for our people.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I feel frustration when somebody raises an issue about a tax such as this which is trying to free up land to have houses built on it. However, I believe this is an imposition on farmers and it should be wiped off the agenda. What Minister is devising this policy? Will that Minister meet farmers’ representatives in order that they can get a clearer understanding of what is going on? I know of land zoned in towns and villages in my constituency and throughout Galway that will never be used, for one reason or another but not because it is being hoarded. Land has been zoned in Tuam where there is no access to the land to build a house on it. That kind of daft zoning is not the fault of the farmer or the landowner because they were never consulted about it. They have no interest in hoarding or making a bundle of money out of it. They are not trying to turn it over to make a pound. Which Minister is responsible for this tax so that the farming bodies can meet and discuss it with him or her?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Canney. There is no problem with engagement, which should always take place between stakeholders. Of course farmers have issues with this measure and will be affected by it. This is a tax of the Department of Finance. The Revenue Commissioners are involved. The local authorities have a central role, as has the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the relevant Minister is directly involved as well.

The draft maps were published by all 31 local authorities on 1 November 2022. Where what the Deputy described as “daft zoning” took place, it should be undone immediately. As the Deputy said, where land is never going to be developed, not for hoarding reasons but for other reasons, such as that it cannot be accessed, there is no point in letting it remain on a county development plan map as zoned land suitable for development. The easiest way out of all that is to dezone that land. That will completely remove it from the scope of the zoned land tax. There will be no issue with engagement in that respect.

I repeat that key point: we cannot have it every way. As I say, we have a huge crisis, we have a challenge and then the first time the Government brings in a new initiative in respect of zoned land to bring it to the market and to get homes built, we have issues which are raised by way of objection.