Results 6,721-6,740 of 32,527 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: That is the difference. I understand the Deputy's argument.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not have figures with me for what land price inflation has been.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Of course, I will be able to get it for the Deputy. I am sure the Department has it. I will have it on Report Stage and can share it with him beforehand.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: No, I do not. That is where I differ from the Deputy. While I accept his point entirely that the disposal price of the land will increase, I believe the cash-flow impact of having to pay 3% on land that is increasing in value will be more significant than does the Deputy. He is correct that the capital value of the land will go up, but the cash-flow effect of having to pay 3% on land that...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: It is because of how much time it will take to assemble the land register and to allow the appeals process for the land, which I am advised is necessary in order to maintain the constitutionality of the tax. What that means, specifically, is it will take until sometime next year to put together the land maps that will show land that is subject to this tax, in other words, land that has...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I expect the land that may not be subject to this tax for up to four years - I will await a note from my officials regarding that - will be a small share of the total land.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: It will be the newly zoned land, so-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Exactly. It will be three years for all other lands. I accept that for some land on which the tax will apply it will take longer, but that is because it will be subject to a new zoning decision.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy is assuming that the effect of this will not be felt until three years' time.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I take a different view. The effect will begin to become apparent once landowners realise they are due to pay this tax. I believe they will take action before the point of payment.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: We have just exchanged a view on the 3% rate and it is certain that, across a three-year period, we will have taxed nearly 10% of the value of that land.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with each question in turn. In the case of the agricultural use of land zoned for residential purposes, the options will be to pay the tax, build homes on the land or change its zoning status. One of the key reasons we need a run-in period for this is that a dezoning or rezoning process will be put in place by local authorities to allow, for example, a farmer actively farming...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: It is members of local authorities. This is one of the things that needs to be fully confirmed as to how it will work because the zoning process for land at present, as the Deputy well knows, takes some time to do. We will need to have a faster process for managing zoning appeals. To be very explicit about that point, because it was an important reminder from my colleague, a landowner will...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: The number of exemptions from this tax are very narrow. In theory, if the land has a zoning status that means housing should be being built on it and it would be subject to the tax. We do not have a minimum threshold of an area of land to which the tax should not apply. If there is any area in any village, to which the Deputy has referred, which meets the criteria of being zoned for...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: Yes, but I imagine that would be a matter the local authority would have to consider.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: This is where the issue of service capacity comes in. The local authority will have to form a view as to whether that land is capable of being serviced. That is the criterion it will have to consider.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: That is the reason we have a run-in period for it. The Deputy began his questioning by asking why can we not do this more quickly. The reason we must have a run-in period, which the Deputy considers is too long, is to give these kinds of indications to landowners. This will be a very broadly applicable tax and, in particular, time will be needed for the appeals process. The reason we need...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: We are in the middle of a housing emergency, as the Deputy well knows. A key learning from the local property tax is that if we are to enforce a measure nationally, that it is important it would have a clear rate with few exemptions, and that is what we are doing here. If we were to adopt a model of having a different tax for different parts of the country, that would undermine its...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Paschal Donohoe: It will apply to all towns and villages across the State. If a town or village has land within it that meets the three criteria I outlined, it will apply.