Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the vacant homes tax, VHT. It was supposed to be introduced on 7 November 2022, a date which has come and gone, with a filing date of the end of January 2023, I presume. Will this tax now not come into being until 7 November 2023 or are we legislating retrospectively?

The penalty a person has to pay is three times the local property tax, LPT. Someone may have a vacant house in Dublin with an LPT of €1,500 or €2,000 per year, which would mean €6,000 in VHT per year. In another part of the country, or even another part of Dublin, a vacant home may be valued in such a manner that a person is paying less than €1,000 in tax. It seems a very uneven fine. In some cases there may be disputes or other reasons as to why a house has to remain vacant.

I wonder about people who are working. I do not see in the memorandum or the Bill information on people who may be seconded to Europe or are working over the world. We know people can work from various parts of the world or may have to seek employment outside of Ireland. They may not return to Ireland for a year or two or be in a position to rent their house. They will be unfairly hit. There is no exemption in this section of the Bill. I ask the Minister of State to address those issues.

The could be a problem with parochial houses. In some parishes there are two or three such houses, but only one priest.What will happen to parochial houses throughout the country?