Written answers
Thursday, 5 May 2022
Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government
Derelict Sites
Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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73. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views regarding the imposition of a derelict sites tax in place of the existing levy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21261/22]
Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Addressing vacancy and dereliction, and maximising the use of the existing housing stock, is a priority objective of the Government, as evidenced by the recently published Housing for All - A New Housing Plan for Irelandwhere one of the four pathways in the plan is specifically dedicated to this area.
My Department continues to liaise with local authorities on the implementation of the Derelict Sites Act with a view to improving its effectiveness.
My Department initiated a review of the Derelict Sites Act in November 2021 to identify potential improvements to the legislative provisions and the way they are applied and will be engaging further with local authorities in this regard in the coming months.
There is currently no proposal to replace the derelict site levy with a tax. However, action 15.2 of Housing for All commits to the introduction of a new tax to activate vacant land for residential purposes, to replace the current Vacant Site Levy. In this connection, the new Residential Zoned Land Tax was introduced by the Minister for Finance in the Finance Act 2021. The purpose of the proposed measure is to incentivise the activation of land which is zoned and serviced for residential development, but remains undeveloped, thereby assisting in increasing housing output, rather than to raise revenue.
The Department of Finance is also giving consideration to a vacant property tax in the context of the replacement for the vacant site levy and is assessing the current Local Property Tax returns to ascertain the present vacancy situation. Once collated and analysed, this data will provide a new data set on vacant homes.
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