Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The measure specifically relates to zoned land, so it is not an issue of the provision of services, whether they be water, electricity or wastewater services. That is not the relevant issue. It is an issue of zoning. No doubt there can be zoned land that does not have the services either, so that is another issue. I apologise; I just want make a correction. Land has to be zoned and serviced. I want to correct the record on that. It is not just zoned; it must be zoned and serviced. We are clear on that.

The issue the Senator has raised relates specifically to farmers who might not be aware their land on the edge of a town or village has been zoned and they could be liable for this tax. Sometimes, without their knowledge, the land of farmers who are actively farming at the edge of a town or village will be zoned. Sometimes, the first the farmers might hear about it is long after a development plan has passed. I know some may find that unusual, but I am aware of local authorities that have not communicated with landowners about the zoning of their land and which landowners have only become aware of it after the fact. That is perhaps a matter for the local authorities to deal with.

Zoned land is a matter for the local authority. Any farmer who feels he could be liable for this tax, even though he is currently farming the land, should seek, through the local authority, to have it dezoned if he does not want it to be included in zoned land, even if it is already zoned. That is essentially it. One cannot keep the zoning and not pay the tax. The farmer has a choice. The zoning issue is a matter for the local authority; it is not matter for the Department of Finance. Landowners are free to commence the process through the local authority outside the normal course of a normal development plan, but they only come up every few years. Where the town has been developed during the course of a development plan to where a farmer is actively farming land he has no intention of ever selling, that farmer should, if he is concerned about the tax, talk to his local authority and ask for the formal process to be put in place to have the land dezoned if he does not want it to be zoned. Then he is not included in this tax net. That is the practical advice we give. That would be a matter to be dealt with through the local authority, rather than through the Department of Finance or the Revenue Commissioners. I hope that clarifies that issue to some extent.