Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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149. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if vacant properties owned by Government bodies, local authorities and semi-State organisations will be subject to the vacant-site levy in 2019; and if not, the reason for the exemption. [35581/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015 introduced the vacant site levy measure, aimed at incentivising the development of vacant, under - utilised sites in urban areas.

Under the provisions of the Act, with effect from 2019, a levy will be charged on the registered owners of vacant sites in designated areas in local development plans and local area plans as being in need of, and suitable for, housing or in need of regeneration. The Act provides that residential or regeneration land, regardless of ownership, either public or private, will be subject to the levy, if it meets the criteria for a vacant site.