Vacant Homes Tax: Motion [Private Members] Dail Éireann — 2023-04-19 ============================================================ Thomas Pringle (IND), Donegal It seems the most recent European Council meeting was, once again, completely dominated by discussions of the conflict in Ukraine. This is an important issue but I note there was no mention of the increased violence in Palestine, where many Palestinians, including children, are suffering from Israel’s apartheid, or of Yemen, where the war is getting more and more violent and where it seems that China is building peace there while the EU is sitting on its hands. Instead the Council agreed to deliver "ground-to-ground and artillery ammunition" and missiles to Ukraine, and what is more is that some of the funding for this is being provided through the European Peace Facility. In what way does providing 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition within the next 12 months encourage or facilitate peace? The Irish Government supported this move while at the same time being vocal about how important peace is in Northern Ireland. It is completely hypocritical for the Taoiseach to call for "peace and prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland" and to then attend this Council meeting only three days later and support the provision of artillery, instead of advocating for peace talks and a ceasefire. I am concerned with the Government’s decision to review Ireland’s policy on neutrality and defence and I am also concerned with the way in which this will be done. Ireland has a long-standing and proud position of neutrality and the consideration of such an important policy stance should be given to a citizens’ assembly, not just a public forum. I am sceptical of the Government’s reasons for setting up this forum. I am aware the Tánaiste said the intention is not to encourage a change in Ireland’s neutrality policy. However, it was only last year that the Tánaiste said there should be a discussion on Ireland’s neutrality following the war in Ukraine. There is no public interest whatsoever in a debate on our neutrality. The public are overwhelmingly in favour of neutrality, as we have seen from a recent poll by The Irish Times and Ipsos. This forum should instead focus on how to strengthen our stance on peace, especially in light of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The Government has to be honest about the fact it has done little to contribute to peace in the North. This peace has been the work of the people on the ground in the North, and not of those who signed an agreement 25 years ago and then left them to it. This forum is an opportunity to consider the stronger role we can play in encouraging and sustaining peace on our island, as well as in other countries across the world. That is what we should be focusing on, rather than on getting rid of neutrality. These measures must be implemented by 1 May 2023. These include extending the vacant property scheme to allow people renting out properties to be included in the scheme. Second, the age of the property has to be brought forward to 2007 rather than 1993. The other aspect to this is that the grant available is not good enough to meet the huge increase in construction inflation that has occurred during the past year alone. The Department of Education has increased its cost limits by 21% alone in three months. That is a positive first step to achieving some progress in bringing buildings back into use. Equally, though, this addresses only part of the problem. We also need to look at how we deal with the planning around these projects. I have cases where the planning exemption certificate has been refused. We need to tell the local authorities to back away and to let people get their properties done up so they can be made available. This initiative needs to come from the Government and the Minister and we cannot be dilly-dallying with this. There must also be an easing of regulations, because this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks when people are trying to build out projects, especially in cities. Rural towns must also be considered. It would be remiss of me not to mention the residential zoned land tax being brought in. In my constituency of Galway East, there are many rural towns, including Tuam, Gort, Loughrea and Athenry. The Minister will know them. Land in those areas is being farmed and is part of a functional farm but it has been zoned R1, as it is called, for residential development, or even R2. A tax is being applied to this land even though it is part of a functioning family farm. It is outrageous that we would put a value on this land, first of all, and then put a tax on it. This land will never be available for sale because it is being used. It is not being hoarded but used for the purpose of farming in this country. We must stand up here and say it is absolutely rubbish if any tax is applied to that type of land. It is important that we take this for what it is worth. There is an opportunity to ensure vacant properties are brought back into use. We must ensure as well that they are brought back into use in a way that will revive our towns, villages and rural areas. Equally, the county development plans are going against the concept of family members building on their own family farms. We have the likes of TII making rules and regulations governing who can build where. We must decide who is actually in charge. All over my constituency, I have heard of cases where the sons and daughters of farmers want to build on their own land and they are being refused planning permission because they would be coming out an exit that perhaps might currently be from a farm yard. Now that a house is going to be built that will use that entrance as well, however, it is being regarded as creating much more of a danger. We must get ourselves back to reality. We have to allow people to live where they should live. This has been proved by the European courts. The European Court of Justice has said this. We need, therefore, to have free movement of people. One thing we must ensure in this regard is that we have proper and affordable planning processes in rural areas. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-04-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:47+00:00 Sitting date: 2023-04-19