Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
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105. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will consider a tax rebate for homeowners impacted by defective properties. [46887/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, established an Independent Working Group to Examine Defects in Housing. Officials from my Department participated in this Working Group.

The objectives of the group were to identify the scope of relevant significant defects in housing, to evaluate the scale of housing affected, to propose a means of prioritising defects, to evaluate the cost of remediation, to recommend appropriate mechanisms for resolving defects and, to consider financing options in line with the Programme for Government commitment to identifying options for those impacted by defects to access low-cost, long-term finance.

The Report of the Working Group was published on 28 July last. It is clear from that document that the process of remediation is likely to take many years to complete, that the estimated potential costs of such remediation are very substantial and that appropriate actions will need to be prioritised.

The report sets out a number of funding options of which taxation measures are but one approach. It is also clear from the report that further work needs to be undertaken to assess the relative merits of each funding option.

Any proposals for tax expenditure measures would need to be assessed in accordance with my Department's Tax Expenditure Guidelines. These make clear that it is important that any policy proposal which involves tax expenditures should only occur in limited circumstances, for example where there are demonstrable market failures. In particular, they provide that a tax-based incentive should only be considered where it would be more efficient than a direct expenditure intervention. The introduction of such measures is a matter that would fall to be considered in the context of the annual Budget and Finance Bill.

Against this background, it would be premature at this point to focus in on a tax rebate for homeowners, as mentioned by the Deputy.