James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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80. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a report detailing the number of vacant residential units that were returned to active residential use in each local authority after availing of funding from the living city initiative scheme for each year from 2014 to date, in tabular form. [28274/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Living City Initiative is a tax-based measure aimed at the regeneration of the historic inner cities of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford.  

The scheme provides income or corporation tax relief for expenditure on refurbishment and conversion work that is carried out in either residential properties or certain commercial properties.

The Initiative targets particular areas of the cities which are most in need of regeneration, especially inner city areas. These are areas chosen by the relevant councils which are largely comprised of dwellings built before 1915, where there is above average unemployment and which demonstrate clear evidence of neglect, dereliction and under-use.

Revenue advise me that it is not possible to specify the extent to which tax relief under the scheme may have supported qualifying work within each of the local authority areas; and that statistical data are not available on the specific number of vacant residential units that have been returned to active residential use under the Living City Initiative from 2014 to date.

Data in relation to claims for the Living City Initiative are available on the Revenue website for the years 2013 to 2018, the latest year for which fully analysed data are available, at: 

www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/tax-expenditures/property-reliefs.aspx. 

This report will be updated over the coming months with data for both 2019 and 2020. The available data for the scheme are reproduced below:

Living City Initiative

*assumed at 40% for IT and 12.5% for CT.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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81. To ask the Minister for Finance if persons who are nursing-home residents will be included in the category of those not to be taxed in the planned vacant property tax in Budget 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28300/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s strategy ‘Housing For All’ includes an action for my Department to collect data on vacancy with a view to introducing a Vacant Property Tax. The timeframe for delivery on this commitment is the second quarter of 2022. The Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act 2021 enabled Revenue to collect certain information in relation to the occupancy status of  residential properties including, where unoccupied, the duration and reason for this, in the Local Property Tax (LPT) return forms submitted by residential property owners in respect of the new LPT valuation period 2022-2025. This information, together with information from other available sources, will be used to assess the merits and impact of introducing a Vacant Property Tax. 

In considering the case for such a tax it is important to have a sound understanding of the quantity, locations and characteristics of long-term vacant properties. It is also essential to identify the reasons for vacancy, and whether this is long or short-term in nature. There may be genuine and acceptable reasons for vacancy such as refurbishment work, the pending the grant of probate for a deceased person’s estate or, indeed, the temporary absence of the owner for medical reasons.

In the design of any tax, it would be important to achieve an appropriate balance between putting enough pressure on vacant home owners to allow the measure to actually work as an incentive to increase the supply of housing, and ensuring any such tax does not arbitrarily or excessively penalise home-owners in a discriminatory way.  This would include consideration of appropriate exemptions from any charge in addition to acceptable periods of vacancy.

Revenue have completed a preliminary analysis of the LPT returns received to date which has been shared with my Department. The results of the preliminary analysis suggest that levels of vacancy are low across all counties. I will consider the issue in consultation with colleagues before reverting to Government with proposals on the appropriate response. I understand Revenue intends to publish a profile of the occupancy data from the LPT returns in due course.