Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter. I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for agreeing to deal with this simple Commencement matter.

I understand that, in his Budget Statement, the Minister for Finance agreed to extend the liability date of the residential zoned land, RZL, tax by one year to allow for the planned 2024 review of maps to take place and to afford the affected people a further opportunity to engage in the RZL tax process. Nowhere in his speech was there mention of the anomalies or difficulties, though. Perhaps doing so was not within his remit, but the Taoiseach has stated clearly on record in the Irish Farmers’ Journal, Agrilandand other agricultural publications that there are anomalies in the scheme. Last year, all local authorities published their RZL maps and outlined the lands that would be zoned or subject to the new tax and that the final maps were to be in place by 1 December 2023. The Taoiseach has acknowledged that anomalies have arisen in cases where farmers who had sought the dezoning of their lands are experiencing difficulty doing so. The Taoiseach has promised to amend these anomalies.

It is outrageous that a full-time farmer who did not ask for his or her lands to be zoned would now be on the hook for a potential tax on them when they are being used actively for agricultural production purposes. I have spoken to fruit and horticultural farmers in north County Dublin who find themselves facing this anomaly. Farming organisations and rural Deputies and councillors have stated that the RZL tax will pose significant difficulties for farmers whose lands have been zoned as residential.

I am cognisant of the significant demand for land for housing – I sit on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage – and we must bring lands into play, but there are different lands in different parts of the country. This scheme must have some regard for the fact that housing demands in the nodes of the greater Dublin area and the cities are somewhat different than they are in rural parts of, for example, Roscommon and Donegal. This difference has not necessarily been calibrated into the scheme.

There are farmers who, having sought their lands to be dezoned, have been refused by An Bord Pleanála. Indeed, some local authorities are also not supportive of having farmers’ lands dezoned.There are particular issues pertinent to each of those and it would not be appropriate for me to go into them.

As the new tax has clearly been designed to give no exemption to farmland that is zoned residential, farmers who own such land will be liable for the 3% tax. That is totally unacceptable. Farmers who, in many instances, had zonings imposed on them are concerned about the viability of the farms now and the 3% tax scenario going forward. It should be borne in mind that it is not a once-off tax. Many members of the public do not understand that. It is a tax every year on farmland and that will erode profits and margins. Farmers are in business and it will also impact on their cash flow. That is some legacy for agriculture and agricultural land and it definitely needs to be reformed.

I am not here to advocate the scrapping of the RZL tax; rather, I am here to advocate reforms. The Taoiseach has indicated the need for such reform. I am calling on the Government to modify the residential zoned land tax to exclude farmland in cases where landowners sought for the land to be dezoned but the planning authority refused their dezoning applications. The Taoiseach has signalled his commitment to fix the issue and stated that genuine farmland must be excluded where it is actively being used for farm practices.

The RZL tax is universal. It is a one-size-fits-all tax and that is the problem. It does not take into account specific housing needs per county or housing demand or viability. There is a need for reform. I am not here to advocate the abolition of the residential zoned tax but it is a crude instrument and does not work. It is a universal tax but it will not work for everyone. The Irish Farmers Association and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, along with other farming bodies and communities, have lobbied the Minister of State's party and others in respect of this issue. There is room for reform.