Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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14. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will bring forward the implementation of the vacant site levy and commence it immediately; if he will raise the vacant site levy to 10%; his views on the recently published vacant sites register for Dublin in which all of the entries were left blank; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2174/17]

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

Under the Act, planning authorities are required to establish a register of vacant sites in their areas, beginning on 1 January 2017, and to issue annual notices to owners of vacant sites by 1 June 2018 in respect of vacant sites on the register on 1 January 2018. The levy will be applied by planning authorities, commencing on 1 January 2019, in respect of sites which were vacant and on the vacant site register during the preceding year (i.e. 2018 ) and will subsequently be applied on an annual basis thereafter, as long as a site remains on the vacant site register in the preceding year.

The timeframes set out in the legislation in relation to the commencement of the application of the levy are based on legal advice in relation to the constitutional rights of property owners and are intended to allow site owners sufficient time and opportunity to initiate development on their sites, or alternatively to sell their sites, in order to avoid becoming liable for the levy.

Planning authorities are empowered to apply an annual vacant site levy of 3% of the market value of vacant sites exceeding 0.05 hectares (or 500 square metres) in area - with reduced or zero rates of levy applying in specific circumstances – which, in the planning authority’s opinion, were vacant or idle in the preceding year, in areas identified by the planning authority in its development plan or local area plan for residential or regeneration development. The 3% rate of vacant site levy is consistent with the rate applied to derelict sites under the Derelict Sites Act 1990 and is considered reasonable, without being over-punitive, for the purposes of incentivising the activation of such sites for residential or regeneration purposes.

I have no proposals to amend the existing legislative provisions relating to the vacant site levy in relation to the timeframes for implementation or the rate of the levy to be applied as proposed.

My Department issued general guidance to planning authorities in July 2016 on the implementation of the vacant site levy. I understand that planning authorities are engaging in the necessary preparatory work, including the variation of development plans and the identification of specific vacant sites for entry on the register. My Department will monitor the implementation of the levy provisions to ensure that it is being fully used in line with its intended purpose.