Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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66. To ask the Minister for Finance if he intends to make further tax changes in budget 2024 to address the issue of vacant and derelict properties, given the current housing emergency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21570/23]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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In the face of an absolutely diabolical housing and homelessness crisis that sees record numbers of people in this country with nowhere to live - nearly 12,000 now in emergency accommodation, including nearly 4,000 children, shamefully - it is even more shameful that, according to the census, we have 166,000 vacant properties, 48,000 of those vacant for six years and 23,000 of them vacant since 2011. Will the Minister introduce tax measures in the budget to deal with this scandal?

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As Deputy Boyd Barrett will be aware, it is long-standing practice of the Minister for Finance not to comment, certainly in any detail, in advance of the budget on taxation matters that might be the subject of budget decisions.

The Government is acutely aware of the difficulties in the housing market and the challenges they present for many people and families at the moment. The need to address vacancy and to ensure all viable housing stock is being used is a priority for the Government. In Housing for All, the Government has set out a suite of incentives available to encourage the reuse of properties and increase the supply of housing. Following from a commitment made in Housing for All, a new vacant homes tax was announced in the last budget and was legislated for in the Finance Act 2022.

This tax is only one part of a much wider suite of measures. Housing for All outlines a suite of measures under pathway 4 to address vacancy and efficient use of existing stock. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage launched a vacant homes action plan in January, which outlines the progress that has been made in addressing vacancy, along with the actions being pursued to return as many vacant and derelict properties back to viable use as possible. More recently, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage announced further enhancements to the vacant property refurbishment grant with the aim of increasing the pace at which vacant and derelict properties are renovated for new housing. This grant is being increased from €30,000 to €50,000 for vacant properties and from €50,000 to €70,000 for derelict properties, extended to cover houses built up to 2007, and will be available for properties intended for rental as well as owner-occupied properties.

As regards dereliction, I understand that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has established a focused working group of local authority officials nominated by the County and City Management Association to examine the operation of the Derelict Sites Act. It is expected that the report of that group will be finalised shortly. Its recommendations will be considered once it is received.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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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.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister says there is a group in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage now prioritising dereliction. The Derelict Sites Act was introduced in 1990, 33 years ago. I will give the Minister some of the figures. There are 1,415 sites on the derelict sites register, with an outstanding €15,424,000 that has not been collected over the years. We believe that figure of 1,400 is only a fraction of the number of derelict sites. To give the Minister more figures, according to the vacant sites register there are 1,783 vacant homes with an outstanding amount of €14,698,000 that has not been collected. Those are figures I got through freedom of information from the Department. I will leave the Minister with this. His vacant homes tax of 0.3% is a disgrace. How will that incentivise these landholders and speculators who are sitting on property while we are in the middle of a housing crisis? It is a sham.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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I heard the Minister's response with regard to the various incentives to bring derelict sites back into use. I have one question. There are many properties around the State where the upper floor is vacant and the ground floor is neither vacant nor derelict, nor has it been vacant or derelict at any point. It has been in consistent use as a commercial unit, but the upper floor has not been used for generations. Every market town in the country is full of such properties. Do those properties which are partly vacant, but in respect of which it could not be said that they are derelict or vacant in their entirety because the ground floor is in use, qualify for the Croí Cónaithe scheme? I have had questions to the Ceann Comhairle's office bounce back to Departments coming back to me, over and back. It is a simple question. They either qualify or they do not. They are not fully derelict and not fully vacant. They are vacant in the upper floors. The ground floors are in use and have been in use.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I have raised this matter previously in the House. In fact, I raised recently with the Tánaiste the issue of the many vacant properties, and part of the reason they are vacant is because there is defective title. There is a need for local authorities to be more proactive in using compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, to assist the landowners to get good title in order that they can go and develop the properties. I really think that is something on which the Department should work with local authorities to resolve the issues as to why many properties are vacant because of the defect in title.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I will take a final response from the Minister on this matter.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is not; I have another go.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy does not because several people have come in on it.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Hold on, a Cheann Comhairle. I get a second go. That is part of the process. I tabled the question.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I do have kind of a clue of the rules. There is time allocated for each question-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Hold on, a Cheann Comhairle-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I really do not want to have an argument with the Deputy about it.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am going to have an argument, a Cheann Comhairle. I am one of the few people who turned up for their questions tonight. People have come in to substitute for other people. That is fine; I did not say anything about that. All these people did not turn up and then substitutes came running in at the last minute but then I get short-changed when I do turn up for my own question. That is not fair.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy is on his feet fairly frequently.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I know, but I put the question down.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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All right, we will give the Deputy time. The Minister to respond.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The tax for which I have specific policy responsibility is the vacant homes tax, which has only just come into being. It has yet to be paid by anyone. We are in the first chargeable period. Returns will be made and the charge will be levied. The Revenue Commissioners will provide information to me regarding the operation of that tax and I will come to a view as to whether we need to change the nature of that tax. I would make the point that it is for habitable properties only.

The issue of dereliction is related but it is a separate matter. That is why I very much welcome the focused working group the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has set up. When we go around the country to towns and villages, we see too much dereliction. We are providing the carrot now in terms of the grants that are in place but there also has to be a stick that is fully and properly applied. The implementation of that Act and register and the penalty appears to be patchy, at best, around the country. I will work with the Minister in that regard.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I want to ask about the stick. I know there are valid reasons sometimes for properties being vacant or derelict. I will give the Minister two quick instances in my area. Directly across from my office is a multi-unit apartment complex owned by a vulture fund. There are 16 perfectly refurbished apartments that have been sitting empty for approximately four years. That fund is doing it purely for commercial reasons. It is no other reason than pure greed while people need homes. At the top of York Road, just off Dún Laoghaire Harbour, for those who do not know the geography, a place has been sitting vacant for approximately ten years. We found out who owned it and traced it back to a Caribbean tax haven. There needs to be a very big stick for people like that, and 0.3% is not a big stick to force these people to bring those properties back into use for people who really need them.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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When we get the full data and having looked at the legitimate exemptions that are provided for in law in terms of the vacant homes tax, the number of people who are directly impacted will not be as high as some are suggesting. I do not think the yield will be as high as some people might think either because of the exemptions that are in place, and which need to be there. That is just that whole area of habitable properties. When I look at the derelict sites issue, however, I see that the levies collected in 2021 came in at just over €1 million and the amount levied was just over €5 million. Presumably, therefore, some of the money has yet to come in or may have may have come in in recent months. I do not think that is a system that is fully working. That is why the working group has a very important task on its hands. We have too much dereliction in Ireland. We have the carrot now; we need to make sure the stick is working too. I will do whatever I can in my role.