Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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272. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the increase to the vacant site levy from 3% to 7% announced on 10 October 2017 as part of the budget statement 2018 will be introduced; if the levy is a general increase from 3% to 7%; and if a 3% levy remains for the first year and the announced 7% increase will only be applied on the second and subsequent years a site remains vacant. [47545/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, 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, 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.

As part of Budget 2018, an increase in the rate of the levy was announced. Under the new arrangements, the levy will be applied at the rate of 3 per cent of the market value of a vacant site from January 2019 for sites entered on the vacant site register of a local authority in 2018. For vacant sites on the register in 2019, an increased 7 per cent rate of levy will be applied from January 2020, with the same arrangements applying annually thereafter.

The increase in the rate of the levy will require changes to the levy provisions in the Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015. I will bring forward the necessary legislative amendments in this regard in due course.