At the time of budget 2026, the Department of Finance forecast a headline harmonised indices of consumer prices, HICP, inflation rate of 1.9% for next year. For household incomes, the Department of Finance forecast continued growth in wages per head of 3.9% in 2026. This implies continued growth in real incomes, which will support the purchasing power of households, and is an important indicator of improving living standards. The Department of Finance macroeconomic forecasts were endorsed by the Irish Fiscal Adviso…

That is not the message. The message is that we took a number of measures in this year's budget that will help families, businesses and workers as well. It includes investing - the Deputy and I have different policy views on this - and deciding to extend the renter's tax credit for a further three years. It includes making sure that people who benefit from the minimum wage increase do not find themselves paying a higher rate of USC, but also investing in protecting people's jobs because that is a very important thi…

That is not the message at all. The Deputy and I rightly discuss the issues of fuel poverty and energy prices in this House regularly, as we should. What I say to the people is that we have taken a number of measures to assist with the cost of energy, including the reduction of the VAT rate to 9%, a real budgetary cost that we decided to prioritise.

We decided to do that.

Did we or did we not-----

We will have lots of time. We are going to have lots of time. It just gets a bit tiresome when the Deputy just shouts me down.

Or interjecting.

For the people watching at home, I get a bit of time to speak and then the Deputy gets a bit of time to speak. I want people to know that we took a decision to reduce the VAT rate on people's energy bills and ensure that is in place for a number of years. We took the decision to make sure more people qualify for the fuel allowance than ever before. We took the decision to increase the fuel allowance. We took the decision to make sure working family payment recipients can benefit from the fuel allowance as well. We …

In childcare, too.

We put money into capital, State-led childcare facilities for the first time. We extended the renters’ tax credit which was due to expire. We have taken real decisions and it is just the first of five budgets.

I thank Deputy Nash for the question. First, we share the same view on the importance of this derelict property tax. In a housing emergency, which we are in, every lever must be used. Having a tax that targets derelict properties is an important one. There is a significant body of work to do, however. I do not say this to in any way cast aspersions but I am conscious that local authorities will have an important role in this regard because when you are moving from a levy to a tax, the importance of consistency will…

I appreciate the past examples. I remember soldiering on some of them together in past iterations of government. We need to get this right, however. My predecessor announced that timeline on budget day. I think we will all agree that we actually do not want to collect much revenue from the tax. Rather, we want people to take derelict properties and sites and put them back into use. The purpose of making the budget day announcement, albeit with the lead-in time, was to make it clear to people in this country that if…

I genuinely am eager to engage on the design and construct of the new tax and we will have an opportunity to do that through the legislative process. I do also genuinely take the point around the urgency of this, and the Government genuinely does too, but we also have to just make sure we get it right. I am conscious there are local authorities around the country that do very a good job and that are also very busy. This is quite an important and big project for them because we have to have a consistency in terms of…

I am advised by Revenue that LPT returns for the next valuation period of 2026 to 2030 have been filed and are fully up to date in respect of over 1.4 million properties. Filing arrangements are being finalised in respect of a further 202,278 local authority and approved housing body properties. There are approximately 40,000 open correspondence queries on hand with Revenue presently, including postal queries and paper returns. While these queries delay filing, the liable persons are considered compliant. Furthermo…

I am genuinely sharing with the Deputy and I am happy to see if I can get him even more up-to-date information. I had a discussion on this earlier today as well. I am advised by Revenue that it is estimated that around 4% of properties will move up one band. These are the latest data I have available here, but I will try and get more up-to-date for the Deputy as soon as that is available. Let me try to provide him with that. This is genuinely the up-to-date information I have. Around 2.1 million properties are in s…

We have different views on property tax. Although I am open to correction, I think the Deputy used the property tax figures in Sinn Féin's alternative budget figures-----

That is okay, but we are not. We are committed to the local property tax as a sustainable way of trying to fund local services. We have a situation where more is now being returned to local authorities. Council chambers across the country, including the Deputy's own councillors, engaging in discussions about what to do with that revenue base that the local authorities now have. We have also increased the level of discretion that they have, which is quite important. If we give local authorities a revenue base, allow…

Residential zoned land tax is a self-assessed annual tax that is calculated at 3% of the market value of land within its scope. It is charged on 1 February each year beginning, as the Deputy said, in 2025 and it applies to land that is zoned for residential use and is serviced and identified on maps published by local authorities, but which is not residential property. The RZLT aims to prompt residential development by incentivising landowners to activate existing planning permissions, or to engage with planning au…

That is correct. Some 160 claimed exemptions and 585 requested deferrals.

The deferrals relate to people seeking to change the use of land. However, I will get the specific note from Revenue in relation to that for the Deputy. The tax is working reasonably well. The other questioner here, Deputy O'Gorman would have pushed for this and was an active supporter of it within the previous Government. We brought it in, and we are seeing some encouraging signs. The Deputy may have seen that the CSO published a report last week which shows that the number of transactions involving residential zo…