Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending the House to respond my Commencement matter calling for a vacant property tax. No more than anybody else I do not like taxes. We must accept, as everybody does, the housing emergency gripping our State. The Government has provided unprecedented funding and made changes to housing policy since taking office. A glaringly obvious waste of built properties is documented in the recent Central Statistic Office census. Anybody would objectively say it is morally wrong to see such vacancy when there is such enormous housing need.

We recognise that more than 10,000 people are homeless. More than 38,000 Ukrainians have arrived in our country since the start of the war and more than 6,000 people are living in direct provision. None of these numbers capture the tens of thousands of people who want to buy their own homes or are stuck in inadequate accommodation. I commend the Minister of State and the Government on the €20 billion commitment they have made under Housing for All to deliver 300,000 homes. I also commend the changes they have made to use State-owned land to deliver social and affordable homes and empower local authorities and housing charities to do this. The Government has committed to ending direct provision. It has banned co-living. It has returned power to local authorities so they can reserve new developments for home owner-occupiers. It has reinstated Part V to ensure a minimum of 10% social housing and a minimum of 10% affordable housing, with a total of 20% in every new private development.

All of this is very welcome, as is protection for renters through capping rents and increasing the notice periods, but we are treading water. It is like we are on a sinking ship bailing out the water as it is coming in when we look at all of the vacancy. The CSO numbers state more than 160,000 properties are vacant nationally. There are more than 30,000 of them in Dublin alone. Every vacant property has its own complex issues and mini-drama as to who owns it and the circumstances of ownership. Housing for All includes many financial supports under the lease and repair, buy and renew and living city schemes. There are also other supports to help property owners to restore them. We are doing this because the fastest and most sustainable way to increase our housing stock is to reuse the buildings already on roads with public lighting, sewerage and public transport and that are near schools. Not only would this increase housing stock and affordability, it would reinvigorate and regenerate communities.

I asked the Minister for Finance to come to the House because I have raised this issue in the House and at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The committee produced a report that calls for a vacant property tax. The reason it specifically did so is taxes are in place. A debate goes on about dereliction and vacancy. Under either of the two charges, the State is failing miserably. Under the derelict sites tax, €300,000 was collected. It sounds like a lot of money. Guess how much should have been collected? It was €5 million in 2020 alone. There is another local authority tax for vacancy. In 2020, local authorities collected €21,000 out of a target of €21 million. That is less than 1%. The levies are not being collected. They are not effective. They are not tackling the vacancy. It is morally, economically, environmentally and socially wrong for vacancy to be allowed to persist at a time of such huge housing emergency.