Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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2156. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he has access to a register of land banks in the greater Dublin area; the type of companies that hold these land banks; his plans to create such a register if one does not exist in order to tackle the deficit in land available for residential development in that area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26721/17]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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2172. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the workings and expected yield of a reported levy of 3% of land value which will be included in budget 2018. [27120/17]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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2190. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if his Department has examined proposals to further sanction the non-use or hoarding of residentially zoned land; his views on whether the vacant site levy is unlikely to be an effective sanction against land hoarding; and his further views on whether the process of identifying and entering vacant sites onto the vacant site registrar is too cumbersome and unlikely to be effective as demonstrated by the low number of vacant properties that have been entered onto these registers to date. [27317/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 2156, 2172 and 2190 together.

The Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015 introduced a new measure, the vacant site levy, which is aimed at incentivising the development of vacant, 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 year 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.

Planning authorities are empowered to apply an annual vacant site levy of 3% of the market value of vacant sites, exceeding 0.5 hectares 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.

It is also worth noting that all levies due on an individual site will remain a charge on the land concerned until all outstanding levies due are paid. Accordingly, under the vacant site levy provisions, there will be a cumulative effect associated with not activating a site for development purposes for each year that a site remains vacant or idle.

The proceeds of the levy raised on vacant sites will be used by planning authorities for the provision of housing and urban regeneration development in the local area in which vacant sites are located.  No more than 10% of the levy monies received by planning authorities may be used on their collection and administration costs.  At this time, it is not possible to provide an estimate of the annual levies that may be raised by planning authorities in the implementation of the levy.

My Department issued general guidance to planning authorities  on the implementation of the vacant site levy in July 2016, by way of Circular Letter PL 7/2016, entitled Implementation of the Vacant Site Levy, which is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

Planning authorities are presently engaging in the necessary preparatory work, prior to the application of the levy with effect from January 2019 in respect of sites identified on the register in 2018.  As required under the Act, this includes the identification of specific vacant sites for entry on the register as well as the registered owners of the sites in question along with undertaking a site valuation.  Vacant site registers were established in January 2017 by planning authorities and the registers will be populated as the preparatory work progresses during the year.  My Department will monitor the implementation of the levy by local authorities to ensure that it is being fully utilised, in line with its intended purpose going forward.

With regard to addressing the issue of the hoarding of residentially zoned land, I have tabled a number of amendments to the provisions relating to the extension of duration of planning permissions in the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016, which is currently at Dáil Report Stage.  The amendments proposed are collectively aimed at tightening up the provisions in relation to the extension of duration of planning permissions and ensuring that extensions of duration, without commencing substantial development, will no longer be facilitated.

My Department does not hold information on the ownership of land banks in the Greater Dublin Area or elsewhere. However, it is envisaged that the vacant site registers currently being developed will provide additional information - including ownership details - on key sites which have been identified by local authorities for housing and urban regeneration purposes. The Department’s web browser holds a comprehensive amount of relevant publicly accessible information in relation to zoned land, including a repository of lands which are residentially zoned and which have been prioritised for development in the phasing/release programmes of the relevant local authorities. This mapping initiative is an important free resource for those involved in planning and other related disciplines.  My Department will continue to develop and improve it so that it gives a more centralised land and housing activity map-based system for public and private housing.

With regard to the provision of housing on State-owned lands, I published on 27 April 2017 the first phase of the Rebuilding Ireland Housing Land Map, as committed to under Action 3.5 of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. This is a vital initial step in the new State Housing Land Management Strategy being developed within the context of the new National Planning Framework - "Ireland 2040: Our Plan".  The map is the result of a significant amount of work carried out by my Department, local authorities, the Housing Agency and other State and semi-State bodies. The datasets published on the map include details of over 700 local authority and Housing Agency-owned sites, totalling some 1,700 hectares, including location and size, as well as 30 sites (comprising some 200 hectares) owned by State or semi-State Bodies, situated in major urban centres. Some 350 hectares of this land is in the Dublin region. The map also shows the locations of 144 active private construction sites, encompassing some 5,200 new dwellings, which are under construction in the Dublin region.

The map is freely accessible on an interactive portal at and data on sites can be extracted in a number of forms, including on a local authority basis.