I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I was due to share with Deputy Dillon, but I understand he was not able to make it here. I will not speak for the full nine minutes, as he was due to have four or five of these. I can waffle if my colleagues wish but I would prefer to get straight to the point.

Was there any discussion at the EU Council meeting on state aid rules and EU funding and how this funding is spent, in particular, by local authorities? This relates not just to how it is spent but also to how it is applied for. If there was not such a discussion at the EU Council meeting, we very much need to have a discussion in this Chamber about how local authorities, in the first instance, spend EU funding through the different EU schemes. Second, we need to discuss how these schemes are applied for in order that local authorities are better informed and there is better communication on how local authorities should apply for schemes so that they are not, as in the case I am about to explain to the House, applying for schemes when the works are outside the remit of the scheme.

The case in point is that of Keelbeg pier in the beautiful seaside village of Union Hall, which is a very famous village in west Cork. In that instance, the council submitted an application under the Brexit adjustment local authority marine infrastructure scheme, which is known as the BALAMI fund. What the local authority applied for was clearly outside the remit of the scheme and the application was turned down for that reason. In the first instance, the authority applied for a barrier to be erected on the old pier in Union Hall. In Union Hall, there is a commercial pier which is used by the commercial fishing sector and an old pier which is used for leisure purposes. The old pier is used by some small fishing boats, by the local rowing club, by the yacht club and for numerous leisure purposes. It is used by families young and old, who just want to go for a swim in spring, summer and autumn. It is a very popular amenity but Cork County Council, despite resistance from the local community, is insisting on erecting a 2.4 m high palisade fence to stop any further use of this pier.

The local authority applied under the BALAMI fund for the erection of a barrier and for a feasibility study which is clearly outside the remit of the fund. What the authority should have applied for, and what is within the remit of the BALAMI fund, an EU fund, was repair works. These are exactly the kinds of works that the BALAMI funding has been used for elsewhere. In places like Hare Island and Laheratanvally pier, this funding is for repair works and not for the erection of a barrier. Despite the wishes of the local people and the fact that they protested in very significant numbers a number of weeks ago, and despite the fact that the representatives of the west Cork municipal district - which is the local council membership there - put a motion to the full council to suspend the works, the works are still going ahead and Cork County Council is insisting upon such works proceeding.

There is a bigger question here in respect of a discussion to be had on the erosion of local democracy. That is clearly what is happening here. The desires and wishes of the people of Union Hall, of west Cork and of the surrounding area are being ignored. I would like to see that in respect of EU funding, and funding which comes from schemes such as the BALAMI fund, a clear outline is given to local authorities on what works can and cannot be applied for, and what repair works can be applied for under BALAMI. I urge Cork County Council, even at this last minute, to abandon its plan to put in place a barrier at Keelbeg pier in Union Hall and to apply for funding instead to the BALAMI fund, or to whatever fund is applicable, to repair and restore the old pier at Keelbeg, to give it back to the people and to let the people use it. That is a last-minute plea.

We are in a housing emergency and the Government's housing policy is a disaster. Almost 12,000 people, including more than 3,300 children, are now living in emergency accommodation. Rents are skyrocketing - up 13.7% in 2022 - while at the same time the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has failed to spend more than €1 billion from his capital budget. The Government is in denial. It is ignoring the homelessness figures, the regular protests and even warnings from employers. The Government is refusing to treat this situation as an emergency because that would involve admitting that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party have utterly failed to address the housing disaster. It seems the real barrier to taking immediate and effective action is the Government's pride. Despite all the evidence of missed targets and unspent budgets, it refuses to admit its plan is not working. Thousands of children, families and workers are paying the price for that failure and no end is in sight.

Our motion is about one simple action the Government can take today. It is a single policy intervention that would make a substantial difference to families desperately looking for homes in our cities, towns and villages, namely, to implement a credible vacant homes tax with teeth. The Social Democrats have consistently called for this. The current tax is tokenistic. It is a derisory 0.3%. The Government's tax is not designed to get empty homes back into use. It is designed to maintain the status quo . More than 100,000 vacant homes are sitting idle across the country. At a time when house prices are increasing in value by an average of 7.8% annually, a 0.3% tax on vacant sites is so low it is laughable. The average value of a house in 2022 was €359,000. Last year, the average vacant home increased in value by a whopping €28,000. If we compare this figure with the charge imposed by the Government's vacant homes tax, it means the tax is a little more than €1,000. This is a net gain of €27,000 for those who decide to leave homes vacant, yet the Government wants people to believe that it thinks this is somehow an incentive to compel property owners to bring vacant homes back into use.

At a time when 3,300 children are homeless, this level of inaction is morally reprehensible. Why is the Government facilitating it? Imagine the difference it would make if tens of thousands of vacant homes and apartments all over the country were made available to families. Making use of unoccupied homes makes economic, social and environmental sense. The quickest way to deliver housing would provide huge benefits for families and communities. The most frustrating aspect of all this is that the Government claims to agree in principle. It is just not willing to act with the level of intensity and scale that is needed. This summarises the failed approach of the Government and previous Fine Gael governments when it comes to housing. It lacks ambition, action, intensity, credibility and results.

Fine Gael has promised a tax on vacant homes since 2017. This Government finally introduced that tax this year but set it so low it makes no real difference. A tax with real teeth is needed to incentivise owners of vacant homes to use, rent or sell them. A vacant homes tax rate of 10% may seem high, but this is an emergency measure to respond to an unprecedented crisis. The existing exemptions would remain for cases such as a home being empty because the owner is in long-term care, the home being in probate, or farm buildings that are derelict. This is the type of intervention a responsible government should make. It is the type of intervention the Social Democrats would make in government. There is a clear need for a targeted and specific measure to address the scourge of vacancy and help alleviate the housing disaster. That is what we are proposing. Why is the Government unwilling to act?

The housing crisis is the single biggest issue facing the country currently. It impacts every aspect of people’s lives, affects physical and mental health and has negative consequences for employment. Where is the urgency? Where are the interventions to really encourage those sitting on vacant properties to rent or sell them? The Government’s vacant homes tax is designed to pretend. It is a policy designed to give the illusion of action. That is all it is - an illusion. We need effective measures that will result in homes for the tens of thousands of workers and families who need them and we need these policies to deliver these homes rapidly. There is a massive stock of vacant homes that could be unlocked if the Government were willing to act. Clearly, it is not.

I am very proud to speak to the motion. I thank my colleague Deputy Cian O'Callaghan for his work on this issue. This motion is an example of the commonsense, practical and realistically achievable housing proposals the Government should be bringing in.

We all know, the Government included, that one in six homes in Ireland is currently vacant. We know that many people are leaving their homes vacant with a plan, potentially, for them in the future. We know that many people are using this period of vacancy and record housing prices to hedge bets on selling. However, we also know that those homes that are vacant and sitting empty are needed in the market now. They are needed for people and families now. In the event that people sometimes need to keep their homes for future use, those homes could be used in the interim as rental properties. Essentially, those homes need to be put into usage now.

Currently, 11,742 people are homeless and in emergency accommodation. That includes 3,373 children who are learning to walk in hotel rooms and cannot have playdates or friends over. They are being moved from hotel to hotel and uplifted from their schools and communities in order to have housing. These 3,373 children will be scarred for evermore by their early start and upbringing. Some 4,500 notices to quit were presented in quarter 4 of 2022. That is 4,500 families and homes that are now in incredibly stressful and traumatic situations. Those people are frantically trying to find a home for themselves and their families. There are hundreds of thousands of people who are living at home with their parents or grandparents, forever stuck in a limbo land where they never ever see themselves in their own homes with their own independent living.

It is a matter of common sense that everything that can be done to incentivise the owners of vacant homes to bring them into use must be done. The Government has brought in several incentives that have been offered to the owners of vacant homes in recent years, including grants for refurbishment. There has also been a half-hearted attempt - and that is being incredibly generous to the Minister - at using the tax system to encourage and nudge people in the right direction, namely, the introduction of the vacant homes tax. However, the Government's 0.3% tax is not fooling anyone. The market is offering the top prize of asking prices that have never been seen before and some of the highest rents in recent history. Regardless of whether we might disagree ideologically with the Government on what is a fair and sustainable tax, we can all agree that its vacant homes tax is not doing the job it should and our proposed vacant homes tax of 10% would be enough to incentivise people to use their homes, whether that is through selling, using those homes themselves or renting them out.

There are 166,000 houses sitting vacant, a number of which are in my constituency. Why is the Government not bringing these on stream or facilitating that? It is the quickest way of bringing houses into the market. The Government should be focused on doing that but, unfortunately, it is not putting the required emphasis on that for some reason. As my colleagues have said, this makes the best use of these houses not only economically and socially but also environmentally because the most environmentally sustainable house is the one that is already built. The measures we are bringing forward would allow us to bring homes onto the market without a major increase in carbon output that solely depending on new builds would create.

This tax is good for the housing market. It makes most sense for hard-pressed renters and buyers. It is the least worst option from an environmental standpoint and, most important, it is what is needed now.

I thank the Deputies from the Social Democrats for raising this issue and tabling this motion. I reiterate that the Government wants to see vacant homes occupied. I agree with many of the points that have been made. These are properties that are already there and are fully serviced and habitable. If they are not habitable, they are derelict and do not fall under the vacant homes tax in any event, as Deputies will be aware. Bringing vacant stock back into use is a much faster way of increasing supply than turning a sod on a new development. In addition, we have an issue in Ireland with under-occupancy. There are many spare bedrooms here, which is why we have schemes like the rent-a-room relief scheme where individuals can receive up to €14,000 in rental income tax-free when they rent out a room in their home. We need to do more to promote schemes like that. It may not suit everybody but for many individuals who have spare capacity in their home, it is a very effective way of making better use of the existing stock and, at the same time, receiving income that will be tax-free. In addition, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, has made changes for people who are on social welfare providing that they too can avail of the rent-a-room scheme without the money they receive impacting their social welfare entitlements. That is an important reform.

The ongoing housing crisis poses many challenges. I acknowledge the real difficulties being faced by many individuals and families when it comes to securing and retaining affordable accommodation. The need to increase the supply of housing of all types is a top priority. My Government colleagues and I recognise and acknowledge this, as evidenced by the resources we have made available and will continue to make available. Funding will not be the constraint when it comes to meeting the housing challenge in this country.

Addressing vacancy and dereliction and maximising the use of the existing national housing stock is a central objective of the Government's housing policy. This is why pathway 4 of Housing for All sets out a blueprint to address vacancy and makes efficient use of our existing housing units. While the reasons for vacancy are often complex, the reuse of available vacant properties in cities, towns, villages and rural areas can go a long way to meeting the current unmet housing need. I do not believe we have different objectives. The Social Democrats have raised a specific issue about the nature of this tax, in particular the rate of the tax, and I will address that in a moment.

It is important to state that this is a new tax. It was announced in the budget last autumn. It follows from a commitment under Housing for All to collect data on vacancy with a view to introducing a vacant property tax. The Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act 2021 facilitated the collection of data on vacant habitable property through the local property tax returns. That has not been referenced by the Social Democrats in either the motion or the contributions we have heard so far. A preliminary analysis of these vacancy data was published by Revenue in July last year, following the local property tax, LPT, revaluation in November of the previous year. The analysis indicates that there is a relatively small number of long-term vacant habitable properties across the State. We want to see these properties occupied again. The tax is one means of seeking to achieve that.

Many of the reasons given for leaving a property unoccupied are normal reasons for temporary vacancy such as when a property is being renovated or following the death of the occupant. The analysis indicates that the vacancy rates captured by local property tax returns are low across all counties, averaging nationally at 3%. This is within a range that is considered to be in line with a functioning housing market. It is important nonetheless that we act - and we are acting - to ensure that all viable housing stock is being used.

A residential property will be within the scope of the new tax if it has been occupied as a dwelling for less than 30 days in a chargeable period. Each chargeable period will commence on 1 November and end on 31 October of the following year. The first chargeable period commenced on 1 November 2022. The first self-assessed returns are due on 7 November this year and the tax will be payable on 1 January 2024. I reiterate that this is a new tax. We are in the first chargeable period, the returns are not yet due and the tax is not yet due in respect of these properties. The tax will be charged at a rate equal to three times the property's existing base local property tax liability and must be paid in addition to the LPT. The number of properties in scope and the amount of tax payable will depend on the self-assessed returns submitted by property owners, the number of properties declared as liable and the number of property owners entitled to claim available exemptions from the tax. A small number of narrow exemptions are available to ensure homeowners are not excessively penalised for normal temporary vacancy.

The motion put forward by the Deputies calls for the Government to significantly increase the rate of the tax on the basis that the current rate of tax will have minimal effect on the behaviour of those who own vacant property as annual property price inflation is currently in excess of the rate of tax charged. The aim of this tax is to increase the supply of properties in the market by encouraging behavioural change. Accordingly, the rate should be set at a level that will influence a property owner’s decision-making. We can have a debate about what the appropriate level of the tax is. Such a debate took place when the legislation was being passed and we have another opportunity to do so again today. I believe the tax as structured will help to incentivise property owners to bring such properties back into use.

In designing options for the new tax, a key consideration was simplicity. It is important to ensure that the taxation of vacant homes operates well alongside existing property taxation measures, and that it is easy to understand and easy to administer. That is why it was decided to base it on the LPT system, which is familiar to property owners and is well understood. They are requested to self-assess the value of their property for the purposes of LPT. As properties are recorded under valuation bands, a vacancy tax charged using another methodology, such as a percentage of a property's market value, would require property owners to self-assess the market value of the property precisely. Calibrating the tax to capture growth and the capital value of property would be administratively challenging and would place a significant burden on taxpayers beyond what is already expected of them from a local property tax compliance perspective. The vacant homes tax applies nationally without variation in the rate by the region.

I will touch on the issue of numbers because it is important given that there was not acknowledgement of the work the Revenue Commissioners did in 2021. In compiling data for the new round of the local property tax for 2022 to 2025, Revenue asked a number of questions about vacancy of existing properties. The data it got back are interesting and very different from the census data. They give us information in response to different questions, which I acknowledge. The census data cited, which indicate that more than 160,000 properties are vacant, are from a point-in-time assessment.

If a person was on holiday, for example, for a couple of weeks, in the census that property would be declared vacant. That is not an accurate representation of the position.

No, no, no.

Sorry, the state of Palestine. At least someone was listening to me.

We must recognise the state of Palestine. The previous Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, said that he might have recognised the Palestinian state if progress towards a two-state solution had stalled. It cannot get any more stalled than it is now. We have an extreme, fascist Israeli Government. Members of the Israeli Government were not fit to do military service.

Have I used up my time?

How can it not be policy when, in a crisis where we have upwards of 80,000, 90,000 or 100,000 homes sitting without families in them, families in this State are literally being told to go to police stations? If the Minister believes, as we do, that this is a crisis, which I must assume he does, then he must act. We are not saying this is the panacea. We are not saying that enacting the single measure we are bringing forward today will solve the crisis. We are saying this will make a difference.

The Government asks us to bring solutions. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste regularly throw stones at the Opposition and say we bring no solutions. We are using our Private Members' time to tell the Minister his Government's tax is ineffective. The people do not have time for a review, so we are saying the Minister should increase the tax. He should make it 10%. Let us reanimate those homes. Let us incentivise people who have the luxury of sitting on vacant homes while others are sitting in police stations, to rent them, sell them and get families into them. We do not have time for a review. This is a solution. If it falls on deaf ears, I promise the Minister this will be a policy the Social Democrats will bring to the table in government.

I commend the Social Democrats, especially Deputy Cian O'Callaghan. Deputy Gannon was just talking about solutions and this is a straightforward solution. The Government recognises a vacant property tax is a tool that can be used to get properties back in circulation. The big difference is the Government has gone for a 0.3% tax, whereas the motion before us calls for 10%. That is not an extreme rate, because in France there is a vacant property tax that starts at 10% and rises to 15% of the annual rental income of a property. That is a vacancy tax.

Vacancy is an issue plaguing every community. When we look at the latest CSO figures, the data suggest that in some parts of my constituency, in the heart of Cork city, one in five homes is empty. Does the Minister seriously think 0.3% is going to deter the people who are making profit? It was said earlier that when you take away the increase in house prices and take the levy away, landlords and especially land hoarders can sit idly by and watch their investments go up in value. In my constituency new houses are being built next to empty, boarded-up ones. It is madness. We listen to the Government talking about the climate crisis and how we all need to work. Why then is the Government not doing more to get existing buildings into use? Existing buildings delivered as housing make for more sustainable housing. It is better for the environment and better for the communities and it delivers the housing much more quickly. We need to build homes and I support that 100%. However, we also need to turn the vacant homes we have into homes right now.

When the Government announced a vacant homes tax last year, Sinn Féin welcomed it. Then we saw the detail. As with so many things with this Government, just as it is about to do something good it does a U-turn or makes a half-hearted effort, which is what its vacant homes tax was. Sinn Féin believes vacant homes represent a significant opportunity to deliver publicly owned homes for workers and families. The CSO figure is 166,000 vacant homes. GeoDirectory reports 83,000 homes. The Minister quoted the figure of 57,000 from the Revenue based on the local property tax. Maybe he is not aware of this, but people filling out their local property tax return were under no compulsion to state whether their property was vacant. People were asked about it and requested to fill it in, but what about all the people who did not? The Minister is an intelligent man. He knows we cannot have 57,000 vacant homes according to the Revenue, 83,000 according to GeoDirectory and 166,000 according to the CSO. Is he saying the CSO is wrong? Someone suggested that in here a couple of weeks ago and there was uproar.

Sinn Féin will deliver 4,000 vacant homes every year. We believe that is a figure that is deliverable. Alongside this, we would encourage people to utilise the empty homes. Some of this would be through a carrot, in the form of funds being made available to renovate homes, but we must also have a stick. We currently have a derelict sites levy of 7%, yet €12 million of that was not collected in 2021. How can the Minister justify a derelict sites levy at 7% and a vacant homes levy at 0.3%? We want to see homes returned. This Government made the decision to lift the ban on evictions. I call on it to reinstate it and use the solution Deputy Cian O'Callaghan has brought forward to deliver homes in the coming months. The Minister's Government will be remembered as the one that evicted people. This is a solution I implore him to take on board.

I also thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and the Social Democrats for bringing forward the motion. The number of residential properties recorded as vacant in December 2022 was 83,662. That is a significant stock of unused properties and if the correct incentives to dissuade people from allowing their properties to sit idle were in place it would go some way to addressing the housing shortage in County Tipperary. Instead, the Minister's vacant property tax of 0.3% will deter few and ultimately misses the opportunity. That is where the central argument of this motion comes into play, because Sinn Féin has repeatedly said bringing vacant homes back into use is one of the quickest and most sustainable ways to increase the supply of housing.

Speed of supply is essential for the people in my constituency who have been issued with notices to quit. I have recently found myself not just representing people who have been issued with notices to quit, but notifying the council of impending evictions. As we firefight what is already happening, people's needs are harder and harder to meet. However, in not making the most of vacant properties, the Government slows the process down for people whose needs are immediate. Some 20% of Sinn Féin's public housing build programme in 2023 would have come from vacant and derelict buildings, but the Government prefers to present aspirational figures for the future as current achievements, as is the case with social housing, while at the same time avoiding the reality of its failures in affordable housing. The Department's own data, which are now no longer hidden, confirm that in 2022 no local authority affordable housing units were delivered in Tipperary. If the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is going to defend himself on his record in bringing vacant properties in need of repair back into use, how many units were delivered under the repair and leasing scheme in my county last year? The answer is zero. It was also zero in 2021 and 2020. To compound this, there was an underspend of €1 billion at a time when the money should have been used to build affordable homes. How is that possible? How did we not have an overspend, given the scale of the crisis and the increased costs?

Sinn Féin would dramatically increase capital funding to local authorities, approved housing bodies and community housing trusts to deliver good-quality affordable homes while stripping away the red tape and streamlining the delivery process. Instead, the Government has provided a vacant property tax that is nothing but a gesture. It will not do what it is supposed to do because it is light-touch. It will not act as a disincentive to the hoarding of empty properties. The most important people, namely those in desperate need of housing, will continue to ask where they are to go.

I was contacted last week by a constituent. She said, "I am facing homelessness and I don't know where I'm going to go, but there's a house in my area that has been empty for ages." I am not the only one who gets these messages with photos of empty houses through Facebook and via email. I am not the only one who sees empty homes in every single estate with leaflets stacked high in hallways. We trek back down the driveway and we wonder what the backstory is. We cannot get every single house back into use because there are legitimate reasons why some are empty. However, there are tens of thousands of empty houses that are ready to be occupied. Would it not be amazing if this Government were as ruthless in implementing its stated policy of a vacant homes tax as it was in ending the eviction ban?

There are around 165,000 vacant homes, with somewhere around 35,000 of those in Dublin. That is double the level of vacant homes there would be in a normal and functioning housing system. We know that vacant homes can be brought back into the system quicker and cheaper than new homes so it is time that action was taken on this front. Sinn Féin believes that maximising the number of vacant homes to active use should entail incentives for those who need help to upgrade their homes for tenants and penalties for those who leave their homes vacant. Housing for All has promised that the vacant homes tax will be introduced in the second quarter of this year but the devil is always in the detail. It is a miserable 0.3%. I cannot see those with vacant homes quaking in their boots. The vacant homes tax must be large enough to make a real impact on those who are sitting on homes that can be put into use because we are dealing with real people and families who are facing homelessness daily.

The area of vacant homes is a shocking failure by the Government. I want to share with the Minister the situation in Donegal just to illustrate the madness of the way the Government approaches housing. We have well over 7,000 vacant homes in Donegal. Those are not holiday homes but vacant homes and this is at a time when we have a profound housing crisis. There are 2,500 families on the social housing list and the delivery of social housing by the Government in Donegal is appalling. We have the defective block scandal and crisis in the county as well.

We are looking at homes in every housing estate and across the highways and byways of our counties that are lying empty, many of them in the possession of banks. The significant majority of these houses could be rented out soon with a dedicated application and with a focus from the Government. It is a scandal that we have families in Donegal telling us that they are facing homelessness because they have an eviction notice, while there are vacant houses all around them. What has happened is that, as we speak, Donegal County Council will hire just one vacant homes officer in a county the size of Donegal. How on earth will one person overturn the scale of the crisis?

The Minister has to wake up; there is an emergency happening in this country. It is like there is a fire and a house is burning down and the people in charge of the fire brigade are drinking coffee and eating doughnuts all the while and telling us they are taking it seriously. It is incredible that one vacant homes officer is being recruited just now when the Government has known that there are thousands of empty houses and that it is a profound crisis. There are people whose homes have to be knocked down because of the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, when they were in government, to regulate the concrete block industry. That is what we are facing.

When will the Government wake up and apply an urgent approach to this crisis? Why is the Government not sitting down with Donegal County Council and asking how many officers it needs and what sort of resources are required to rebuild those houses, make it happen and get people permanent roofs over their heads? The Government has to listen to us in the Opposition when we have motions like this. It is an excellent motion drafted by the Social Democrats and Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and the Government has to take it seriously and engage. The Government says we do not provide solutions. It gets solutions from us again and again every week but it brushes them aside and the crisis and emergency continues.

I listened to the Minister on the radio this morning talking about the forecasted budgetary surplus. He had a caveat that forecasts can be unreliable and that we need to be cautious, and rightly so. Census figures are not forecasts, however; they are factually correct. The figures from the census in 2022 show that there were 160,000 vacant properties. Some 48,000 of these were vacant in 2016 and a further 23,500 were vacant in 2011. Those are the facts.

The Government's vacant property tax of 0.3% of the property value is exactly as it was described already. It is derisory and it is window dressing and it is a way for the Government to look like it is trying to tackle this issue when it is plainly not doing that. I do not know how many people come to me with a list of houses. They say that X, Y and Z houses have been boarded up for the last six months and they ask why they cannot have them when they have been on the council list for eight or nine years. It is heartbreaking when people come to me on that issue and I have lost count of how many times it has happened. There are five houses in my area that have been left idle for eight or nine months and they are council houses on public property. That is all because of the lack of tradesmen who are working directly for the council. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have privatised local authorities, which have re-let properties. They are bringing in contractors from outside and some of the work these contractors are doing is shoddy. I have had people moving in after re-lets after ten or 12 years waiting on a council list and they have had issues with damp, mould and so on because of this shoddy workmanship. We have to get back to directly employing tradesmen with our local authorities.

We also need to give the local authorities the ability to go out and purchase other vacant properties that are in our area. There is a property in Palmerston that I got an answer back on yesterday and that the local authority is going to look at. It has been vacant for ten years at this stage and the owner will come in and maybe use it for a small bit of time and then it is vacant again. For ten years it has basically been vacant and people are going by and watching this all the time.

I was reading the concluding statements of the European Council meeting this morning and noted how strong they were in respect of Russia's barbaric war in Ukraine, and rightly so. However, I was also thinking that we could change these statements to reflect what is happening in the occupied territories of Palestine. One could easily change the statement that "The European Council reiterates its resolute condemnation of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine" to "The European Council reiterates its resolute condemnation of Israel's war of aggression against Palestine".

Was I last? I could have gone on.

I wish to send best wishes to Ambassador Aidan O'Hara and his family for what they have gone through.

At the Committee on Public Petitions earlier this year we discussed with the European Ombudsman various reports, among which was noted the changing world within which the EU operates and the response of the EU institutions to those changes. However, troubling issues remain, such as what the ombudsman described as a porous ethical framework that has been found to exist. Qatargate was one, involving allegations of foreign governments buying and attempting to buy influence at the European Parliament. Of course that is just one incident of concern. I read that assurances were given and in light of Qatargate certain measures have been put in place. However, there are still concerns that the committee looking into breaches of the rules is not sufficiently independent and that it cannot independently investigate anything until the Parliament asks it to do so. Were Members comforted by assurances that work is being done to address the issues thrown up by recent controversies? How much further is there to go on this until the reputation of the EU institutions can recover significantly in the eyes of the public?

Since the Council we have witnessed the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the push by the Israeli Government to further pursue far-right ideologies. However, Israel’s ongoing activities in the occupied territories, which amount to nothing less than apartheid, have long been present. Shortly before the EU Council meeting, a statement was issued citing the EU’s shared responsibility to prepare the ground for peace. What approach has this Government taken?

Finally, state aid rules were mentioned. Where are we on our belated application in regard to the forestry programme? Fine words about a robust and future-proof economy that secures long-term prosperity are all very well but if we are late in coming to the table when it comes to our own interests then the sector itself has been failed.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the vitally important issue of vacant homes and the vacant home tax. Labour is glad to support this motion from the Social Democrats and I commend Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and his colleagues for putting it forward. As I said last night in the debate on the Sinn Féin motion, this motion is the latest in a series of constructive policy proposals being put forward by Opposition parties, providing suggestions, proposals, worked solutions and ways of resolving the housing disaster.

It is disappointing, albeit not surprising, to see the Government again not engaging with Opposition parties on these constructive proposals and opposing them and putting forward countermotions, as it did last night and as it is doing today. The housing catastrophe is of such a scale that it requires a cross-party response. It requires a collaborative and constructive coming together of parties to look at how we can address this catastrophe with the necessary ambition and urgency.

We in the Labour Party have put forward proposals too. On 9 February we put forward a series of eight emergency measures that we called on the Government to adopt prior to the lifting of the temporary no-fault eviction ban. The Government, again, did not engage and countered and opposed that motion. We have put forward a number of Private Members' Bills suggesting constructive ways to address the housing catastrophe, such as a homeless families Bill, a Bill to implement the Kenny report and a Bill on renters' rights. Most recently, we put to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage a Bill that would provide an evidence basis for the continuance of a ban on no-fault evictions until there is a demonstrable drop in homelessness figures. The Government has not engaged with these proposals. Instead, countless Government Ministers and spokespeople have set out reasons they cannot implement Opposition measures. That is what they have done, instead of telling us how they propose to implement constructive measures to address a housing crisis that the Minister, Deputy McGrath, and other Ministers acknowledge is the biggest crisis facing this country.

At our recent Labour Party conference I set out an ambitious programme to deliver 1 million homes over ten years, based on the Government's own projections of 50,000 new builds and 50,000 refurbishments and deep retrofits per year. These are the Government's own figures and projections of housing need. The Taoiseach has told us there is a current shortfall of 250,000 homes. The Housing Commission has told us that we need up to 62,000 new builds per year to meet demographic demand and existing need. Yet, the Government will not engage. We are simply not seeing the level of ambition and urgency that is required. Instead we see a fatalism, a lack of ambition and a lack of creativity in the Government response and the Government programme that is being put forward at a time when we have record budget surpluses.

Like other colleagues, I heard the Minister speaking this morning about the record budget surplus and the stability programme update which tells us there will be a €10 billion surplus in this year's budget. We had a surplus of over €5 billion last year. Yet there is a failure of spending, with an underspend of €1 billion on social and affordable home delivery by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. That is an extraordinary underspend in the teeth of a housing crisis. We know this is about ideology. It is not the economy or a lack of resources that are holding back the necessary State investment in housing. It is a reluctance, it seems, by the Government to interfere in the market. We see that in the unexpected and premature decision to lift the ban on evictions without having any contingency plans in place. Again, we have seen the Government's fatalism here - a stepping back and an acceptance that this is going to cause immense hardship for the 9,000 individuals served with eviction notices in the second half of last year. Threshold has told us today that many of those notices were in fact invalid yet we see again this fatalism and a failure by the Government to adopt the necessary measures that would have provided a safety net for renters facing the loss of their homes at a critical time. We are entering the period when children sit State exams and we are hearing from so many families who are absolutely desperate with nowhere to go.

We see the same fatalism with regard to vacant homes. The Labour Party welcomes the vacant homes tax. We welcome any measure introduced by the Government to address the housing crisis and increase housing supply but it is not enough. We know even from the Minister's own proposals that a vacancy tax is simply not enough in itself. It needs to be set at a higher level to ensure not just that revenue is raised but also, crucially, to bring about a change in behaviour and culture. In his speech, the Minister put forward the lowest estimate of vacant properties in the State. The CSO has estimated a much higher figure of 166,000, which is a vacancy rate of nearly 8% - a high vacancy rate compared to other European countries. That excludes holiday homes. While the CSO figures are noted in the Government's own vacant homes plan alongside the other two sets of figures, I note the Minister has given us only the Revenue figure of 57,000, which is the lowest projection and is based on self-reporting. As others have said, GeoDirectory puts the figure at nearly 85,000. It is extraordinary that we simply do not have reliable data on this. Let us take the CSO rates or even the GeoDirectory rates. Hardware Association Ireland has used other criteria and suggests that up to 40,000 homes are clearly long-term vacant and immediately available for refurbishment. That is the sort of immediacy and urgency we need to refurbish vacant homes.

All of us know from our own constituencies that there is a high level of vacancy and dereliction. I see it in Dublin Bay South. We see it everywhere. Hardware Association Ireland tells us, and I think it is right, that there is "a deeper cultural issue [here] with an acceptance of a high level of spoilation in our built environment". That has to be tackled but the Government's proposals are simply not sufficient, adequate or effective enough to tackle that culture. Its vacant homes action plan has acknowledged that and sets out a series of measures to be taken but we need greater urgency on these. We need greater urgency in tackling this high level of vacancy and we need an ambition from the Government. It can be done. The housing crisis can be addressed. It is simply not good enough for the Government to say it cannot address, for example, labour shortages or construction inflation. There are ways and means to do this. In December, the ESRI set out a range of measures that could be activated now by the Government to address labour shortages, such as an expansion of the list of skills on the critical skills visa programme, for example, to enable an aggressive recruitment campaign of workers from abroad. Social Justice Ireland backed that call this morning. We need that to be done.

The Government's own estimates say we need another 20,000 construction workers. Let the Government act on this instead of sitting back and just observing a shortfall of 250,000 homes, observing that there may be up to 166,000 vacant properties in the State or observing that we need 20,000 more construction workers. Let action be taken urgently, with ambition and creativity, in the same way the State, the Revenue Commissioners and other State agents intervened during the Covid pandemic to use the levers of State power to address such a huge and existential crisis. Let us see those levers being used now by the State and by the Government so measures, like the measures being proposed in this motion, can be adopted by the Government with urgency.

I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this important motion.

We are happy to support the idea of a punitive vacant homes tax to deal with an estimated 166,000 vacant properties, according to the CSO, that could be used to address the utter scandal of the housing crisis. Let me give an example that stares me in the face every day I go into my office in Dún Laoghaire. Directly across from my office is a multi-unit apartment complex called St. Helen's Court. It was owned by one vulture fund and then by another, which has spent the past four years persecuting the tenants in there. They have never done anything wrong. Many have left because of the stress; some will be in court this Friday facing an enforcement order for an eviction that has been granted by the RTB, even though the tenants did nothing wrong. There are now 16 apartments in that block that have been fully refurbished for at least two years and have been empty for three to three and a half years. I have raised that case dozens of times in the House. To put it really sharply, this is criminal. The people who are wilfully sitting on that property are part of an asset management company based in three townlands in County Donegal, but nobody can get a phone number or an address for them. It is very odd. I do not know how a company manages to have an address in three different townlands in Donegal. It has sat on that property for all this time, persecuting the remaining tenants.

What is it doing? It is just watching the value of that property clock up. It has probably clocked up by approximately 40% to 50% in value. It is profiting from sitting on empty property, simultaneously persecuting and trying to evict the tenants. Meanwhile, day after day, people are walking into my office directly across from this building saying they have nowhere to go or that they are in emergency accommodation. I have one woman who has been in emergency accommodation for four years. It is desperate. She is living with her child in one bedroom. Her job is to look after vulnerable children for Tusla, if that can be believed, but she is over the threshold and is not entitled to social housing. Across the road there are empty properties. It is disgusting and the Government does nothing about it.

There should be compulsory purchase of those properties immediately. We put pressure on the Government and the local authority to enter negotiations with that vulture fund but the Minister told me recently in a conversation that this fund does not seem to want to sell. It evicted the tenants on the basis that it was supposed to sell the property but the fund apparently does not want to sell now when the local authority is trying to buy it. When are we going to deal with this scandal? This is going on left, right and centre. Greedy, ruthless people are sitting on empty properties watching the value of their assets go up while other people languish and rot. This includes children like those lovely children who just walked out of the Visitors Gallery. Some 4,000 people are languishing and having their mental health destroyed while sitting in emergency accommodation while tens of thousands of other families are faced with the possibility of eviction, yet these greedy, ruthless people are sitting on empty property and the Government allows it. It then has a vacant homes tax at 0.3%, which is a joke. These apartments are gathering more value in a week than that tax but the Government allows it. Why does it allow it? I cannot understand the reason other than the Government is dancing to the tune of investment funds such as this one because apparently we need these investors. According to the Government, they are somehow helping us with housing. They are not; they are just exploiting other people's misery. They see empty or derelict property, or planning permissions as I keep reporting. The Government goes on about people objecting to planning permissions. We have a massive surplus of planning permissions. The Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, which is the Government's own economic evaluation service-----

We have witnessed the Government pushing ahead with forced reductions in livestock emissions, simply because the bureaucrats in Brussels and Dublin want to see this happen. This shift in policy is creating considerable problems for consumers, with food inflation on the rise and farmers facing some of the toughest times in recent history. Weather is one contributor to that and climatic conditions were always there. They are squeezed by skyrocketing feed, input and energy costs as well.

It is also clear that the area of competence for agriculture within the policymaking area that makes up the EU institutions is now shrinking because of the unveiling of the EU's flagship environmental policy, the so-called Green Deal. The deal is not only detrimental to agriculture but also to rural economies. Yet it has been embraced as a silver bullet by this Government, despite its damaging effects on rural communities. When the food part of the farm to fork strategy was presented to the EU agricultural heads, it was totally shocking to us in the Rural Independent Group. We are calling on Government to provide clarity in this area. It is not acceptable and we will not have an agricultural industry if it continues in this vein.

-----says there are 70,000 planning permissions but the applicants are sitting on them. As soon as someone gets a planning permission, the value of the property goes up and then he or she sits on it for ten years. The Government allows that as well. When will it do something about this?

My last point is topical. The Minister now has a €10 billion surplus. I have a very simple proposal. That money will have to be put somewhere. Whether it is with the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, or a fund or whatever it is, the money will be invested somewhere. That is what happens to money. It does not sit somewhere; it gets invested. I propose the Government buys all the newly completed developments. At the moment, everything other than the very miserable amount of social and affordable housing the Government is delivering will be rented out or sold at extortionate, unaffordable levels. I propose the Minister use that €10 billion. It would be a good, prudent one-off investment in stock that will deliver revenue to the Government and will help solve the housing crisis. It should buy all the newly completed property with those billions of euro.

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling another well-intentioned motion on housing. Unfortunately, the motion, as presented, while well-intentioned, simply underpins the false narrative that has been advanced by Governments for the past ten years. It is nothing more than a deluded application of centralised policies to follow the groupthink of all the parties in this House that this will solve the problem. Continuously speaking about the effects of the housing crisis, and a continuous failure to diagnose the cause, is the central theme in housing. People are sick to death of hearing it. Government, and those aspiring to be in government, must engage with all stakeholders in housing. The dead hand of government is the central cause of this crisis. Government planning policy and its application continues to undermine housing supply. The Government has issued two further sets of guidelines in the past couple of weeks for public consultation, which demonstrates that it has no idea how to solve the crisis. Opposition parties bring forward motions that theoretically work very well on paper but practically are unimplementable.

It would appear that the lepers of the housing industry in Ireland are the developers. These are the people who can deliver housing and nobody on any side of this House is engaging or listening to them. Senior politicians in Government are held hostage by their senior civil servants and the Planning Regulator; it appears they have Stockholm syndrome. In times past we were told by a regulator that the Irish banks were well capitalised. We had a regulator who was asleep at the wheel. The Planning Regulator is now asleep at the wheel. All the supply issues are of his making. We have a Minister whose issue is not that he is unable to identify the problem but that he is afraid to tackle the cause. In order to solve the greatest shitshow this country has ever seen, the Minister needs to grow a pair and start immediately implementing policies that are required to make supply happen. The regulator is playing the music and the Minister is dancing to the tune while Opposition parties and the fourth estate clap along. It is a simple case of Nero fiddling as Rome burns. It is about time the rubbish stopped or we will never be able to break free from this rental limbo in which the Government has put us. The affordability or viability crisis will also never be over unless we change how we do things. That means taking real, decisive action that works. Change means policies that work. It means strong leadership and standing up and being counted when faced with officials who will not listen.

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.

I believe the motion would give the State even more planning powers over people's private property rights. It is as simple as that. We could look at many other areas. I appreciate the right of the Social Democrats to bring forward this motion. Why do we not look, however, at the more than 4,000, which is a conservative figure, empty local authority houses that have been there for decades? All of us know if we go into any of the estates in our towns and villages that we will see houses that have been boarded up for years, and decades in some cases. We must tackle these. I believe this is a very dangerous road to go down. I want to get houses sorted, but it looks like the State and the Government do not. It looks like paper is being pushed around and back and forward and we get no houses built. We talk the talk, as Deputy Verona Murphy said earlier. It is time for this fiddling while Rome burns to stop. Let us put our shoulder to the wheel and not bring forward motions here to outclass other parties on the left to try to see what they will or will not do. Some of the parties on the left have been in government and they did not produce many houses. It is not a simple issue and I am not saying that; I am saying, though, that this is a slippery slope that we are going down when we talk about taking people's houses.

For various reasons, and we all see them, there could be major complications involved, including in the land registry, in wills, in people being ill in nursing homes or whatever. It is not as simple as just being able to empty buildings. It is not about being able to use the postman, fear an phoist, to spot empty buildings. There is a great deal behind every story in this regard and we must respect that. We must respect private property. People who own private properties bought them and paid their taxes. They bought them, paid for them and maintained them. For some reason, then, these buildings are empty and that could be because of mental health issues or a plethora of other issues. I would love to see all these buildings being used as well, but we must work within the law and give no more draconian powers to the State to dictate to people who had the energy, enthusiasm and focus to house themselves. They should be left alone. Let us look at the State's empty properties first, and they are many.

In County Kerry, which I represent, we have 172 voids, which are empty houses. Why are these not being tackled and put into use? When local authority houses become available, why are they not put back into use within, at the most, a month? Houses like that should be turned around in five to six weeks and new people should be put into them. Deputies in this Dáil attack property owners. I have heard more rubbish in here today from people who are serial objectors themselves. They have objected to thousands of houses being built in their constituencies. We have one lady in this Chamber who has objected to 5,000 houses in the short time she has been a Deputy. It is insanity of the worse type. Why? It is because they are being built by the private sector and maybe somebody will make a profit. My good God, is there anything in the world wrong with a person making a profit? Is there anything in the world wrong with people having a house? It is their property. They might have worked hard for it. If somebody inherits a house, am I seriously being told there is a desire to increase a tax by 33 times to 10% of the valuation of the property? If implemented, this would mean that in the context of the average vacant home, using the average home price example of €320,000, a vacant home tax of €32,000 would end up being paid annually if the Social Democrats got its way. That is insanity of the worst type.

We also have to improve the road infrastructure. Regarding the offshore renewable projects, there are more than 36 new projects that are either in design or final stages. Half of them are in the Irish Sea. It is critical to meeting our obligations and reaching our target of 80% renewable energy by 2030 that we have the necessary infrastructure in the port. As I said before in this House, we have updated our legislation to provide for the planning and consent process around delivery of offshore renewable infrastructure. The maritime area regulatory authority, MARA, having its headquarters in Wexford will be a key instrument in adjudicating on all those consents, which are going to be very important. Seven times our landmass is offshore. It is one of those key areas that could be a huge benefit for this country into the future. We look forward to delivering on those aspirations. We will do all we can to accelerate that infrastructure because it is of vital importance.

Deputy Howlin asked detailed questions about state aid. Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan also mentioned it, as did Deputy Harkin, who also raised the Inflation Reduction Act. There are huge discussions going on around both pieces of legislation, that is, the critical infrastructure Bill and the zero-emissions Bill, and what the detail of those two key instruments is going to be. In all of the bilateral engagements I have had since being appointed Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, I have raised the need for any changes in the Single Market or state aid rules to first be evidence-based. Impact assessments must be carried out to ensure smaller open economies are not adversely affected by such changes.

I am not going to be shouted down

Regarding rented properties, does the Deputy have to declare his interest in this area?

The current and worsening situation with regard to the plight of the Palestinian people has been mentioned a number of times. The programme for Government committed to recognising "the State of Palestine as part of a lasting settlement of the conflict, or in advance of that, when we believe doing so will progress efforts to reach a two-state solution or protect the integrity of Palestinian territory”. The last portion of the commitment is particularly important because the Israeli Government is systematically going about attempts to bring-----

I have three other questions to get to. Will the Deputy ask his question?

When will the Government recognise the state of Palestine? Can the Minister of State outline what particular efforts are being made at an EU level by the Government in this regard?

I will follow up on that. It is a fair point. Is it possible to have that conversation at an EU Council level? If it is not possible to have that conversation even among some of the states across the European Union, Ireland will have to do an element of heavy lifting in relation to supporting the Palestinians. That will mean progressing the occupied territories Bill, recognising the state of Palestine and dealing with the issue as regards the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Allowing the fund to be a shareholder in companies that are involved in illegal settlements is utterly unacceptable to the Irish people.

The Deputy should-----

I am addressing the Chair. As you well know, since you have been around here a while, I always-----

On this occasion, the Deputy did not.

-----declare my interest in every debate.

Deputy Healy-Rae did not-----

I provide a lot of accommodation.

-----declare it today.

Please stop the clock.

As this is a financial resolution, in accordance with Standing Order 210 the debate will be done in Committee style. Accordingly, there is no restriction on the length of time of Members' contributions, but perhaps, with the agreement of the House, we could agree that each Member of the House when speaking will be cognisant of the available time for other Members and that the debate will be brought to a conclusion after half an hour. Is that agreed?

Agreed.

Typical Social Democrats.

In answer to this point, I provide accommodation and there is nothing to be ashamed of in that.

I am not saying that. He needs to declare it.

I call Deputy O'Donoghue, please.

The first thing when it comes to local properties that are vacant is that we should look at how many properties belong to the Government and the local authorities. The local authorities in County Limerick are number one in dealing with vacant and derelict properties. The problem, however, is that it is not possible for them to turn those properties around fast enough and get them back out because they do not have the staff to refurbish those houses and get them back into use. Those houses are sitting idle for 12 months or two or three years while efforts are made to try to get them back out. Meanwhile, someone who buys derelict properties has to return them to use within 12 months and show they have the money to do that. In the context of a dereliction order, those in the private sector have to show they have the funds to do up a property and bring it back into use within 12 months. This means a private person is bringing the house back into use and not the local authority.

Many vacant properties in our area are being held up through serial objectors to planning permission. I am a building contractor but I do not build houses anymore. I say that just in case there might be a point of order regarding my interest. I am a builder, so I know how to build houses and get them refurbished. The biggest problem we have, though, is getting vacant properties turned back into use and this is because of the labour costs. We also have a planning permission issue where houses and apartments are being held up in the context of dereliction through planning permission processes, An Bord Pleanála and serial objectors.

They are being charged under the dereliction Acts while their property is in the planning system due to serial objectors. The Members who tabled the motion are the same people who object to houses. They are the same people who are holding up planning permissions for people to build houses. I am in the private sector so I build and I know what to build. If I do not make a profit, the people who work for me do not get fed and my business would not stay in business. Use your head. People are employed by employers. Employers employ people.

The Social Democrats' proposals would see the current vacant properties tax increase by more than 33 times to 10% of the property valuation. If implemented, this would mean that the owner of the average vacant home, using the average home price of €320,000, would pay a vacant home tax of €32,000 per year, up from the current €945 per year. This proposal is just plain bonkers and is destined to fail. A vacant property tax falls into the category of something that sounds good, that will play well politically but that, ultimately, will deliver next to nothing.

I would support a vacant council homes motion if it were put in front of us, but do not get us wrong. It is galling to have so many empty homes in the midst of such a chronic housing shortage. Vacancy is a complex phenomenon and one that will simply not be magicked away by tax. Let us consider, for example, the person with an inherited home who may want to do it up for a son or daughter but might not have the funds to do so. In a place such as west Cork, having to pay this tax to the Government is almost the equivalent of a yearly industrial salary of €30,000 per year in a vacant home tax. Such a policy proposal is nothing more than a communist, left-wing, political point-scoring exercise. Let us imagine how many vacant homes are out there due to people who may be in hospitals or in nursing homes or who may be cared for by relatives. They would have this horrible tax applied to their homes when most of these people are already paying for a fair deal payment.

Today, the Social Democrats and the left will want to force people who have a second home to start paying tens of thousands of euro in tax, and tomorrow they will want to tax people who have vacant homes. We will not support this attack on hard-working homeowners and families who are struggling to get by.

We would support a motion to ease the planning restrictions on young people trying to start building their own homes on their parents' property, which is almost impossible in my constituency. This leaves many people houseless at this stage. We would also support measures to deal with void council houses.

I thank the Minister, Deputy McGrath. It is broadly welcomed, generally, by everybody here today to see a VAT reduction in the supply and installation of solar panels. It has been brought in as a financial resolution and I thank the Minister for explaining that as I did not realise it is so that we can implement this on 1 May, prior to the Finance Bill being passed. This demonstrates the speed and the commitment of this Government to act on renewables and address cost-of-living expenses for people to help them with those energy bills, to help them with future-proofing their housing, and in making them more energy efficient and energy resilient.

Deputy, I will not let-----

It is simply CPO in disguise.

Resume your seat.

They want to tax the people out of their homes-----

I am giving you one warning to resume your seat-----

It is a land grab under-----

Resume your seat, Deputy, out of respect for this House.

"The rent and taxes were too high, and them I could not redeem-----

You have the cheek to come in here and your phone rings, and you then carry on like this.

"-----and that's the cruel reason why I left old Skibbereen". That is what these people want to do. Tax them out of their homes and tax them out of their farms.

Deputy Joan Collins is about to speak.

It is wrong.

We want to get people into homes.

Deputies, please do not encourage-----

What about the serial objectors?

Please. I call Deputy Joan Collins.

I thank Deputy Healy-Rae for that rendition.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Private Member's motion from the Social Democrats. The National Economic and Social Council made a recommendation in its Private Rental in Ireland report last February to consider Danish-style reforms to our laws on vacant properties. In Denmark, property owners must report to municipal authorities if their property is vacant for more than six weeks. That authority then finds tenants that the owners must accept. There are caveats and allowances in this system but it means that effectively no residential property goes more than 180 days vacant. The Government's own advisory body is recommending this but this current vacancy tax of 0.3087% lacks the ambition to really tackle this issue and get people into homes. In Denmark, people pay a land value tax to the local authority as well as a property tax to the central government. This means that land sitting idle is pushed to be used or sold. They have also had successive programmes for local authorities to buy and reuse vacant and derelict properties. I take on board the fact that the State has failed in its own respect in relation to vacant homes in local authorities. All over our constituencies we see properties vacant for two or three years before they are done up to provide housing for people on the housing lists.

This is the same in the north and midlands of England with the housing market renewal programme. This was accompanied by a set of other grants, incentives and programmes that brought 100,000 homes back into use and brought the vacancy rate down to a fraction of what ours is. We all know the famous figure from the latest census of 166,752 vacant homes in the State. I am aware that not all of those are suitable for reuse, but there are currently 9,000 active notices to quit, 11,742 people accessing emergency accommodation, and thousands more people rough-sleeping, sleeping in cars, sofa-surfing, in overcrowded conditions or just struggling to find a home. A fraction of those 166,752 vacant properties could make a huge difference to thousands of people in the middle of a desperate and worsening housing catastrophe.

The point I am trying to get at is that the Government lacks the ambition to use the tools and resources we have to address the housing catastrophe. A vacancy tax of 0.3087% is a joke in the crisis we are facing. The €20,000 and €30,000 grants for people buying vacant or derelict properties are a joke too. People cannot afford to buy homes; that is the problem. The Government is trying to leave the solutions to this problem up to a market that ordinary people just cannot afford to participate in.

It is very simple. Thousands of people cannot afford or cannot find a home, yet we have empty land and houses sitting idle in the State. We need to make hoarding or vacancy prohibitive. Where there are issues, the State needs to step in to resolve them directly. We have examples of what works. Let us make it illegal to leave houses vacant and use State resources to fill in the gaps. This three-party Government, and successive Governments led by their parties, got us into this crisis because they believed that the market and private investors could run a housing market for people and not profit. This belief is being proved wrong time and time again with every rent increase and every increase in homelessness.

Our housing system is broken, but there are solutions: take back the power from the market and private investors and developers; take away the ability to hoard land or housing; start making real State interventions to provide housing; make it prohibitive for private interests to continue to profit off making this housing crisis worse and build public housing on public land; use the €1.5 billion that was underspent on housing in the past three years; and use the billions of euro coming in with corporation taxes where we had Exchequer surpluses of €8 billion to €10 billion this year, and €12 billion to €16 billion next year. Start building public housing now. Invest in housing. It is a lifetime investment. I have seen a calculation where €1 billion could build 4,000 affordable homes, so €10 billion of the Exchequer surplus could build 40,000 affordable homes. That could start to make a difference.

I will make a point about Tathony House, Bow Lane West, in Dublin 8, in my constituency. Tenants there have campaigned to get the council to take over the complex. Dublin City Council has agreed to do this and negotiate with the owner but the owner has gone to ground. There will be a solidarity demonstration this Saturday at 3 p.m. at Tathony House to support the tenants who are threatened with notices to quit, and who are supposed to be out by 1 May. I appeal to people to support this solidarity demonstration.

I support the motion and I thank the Social Democrats for tabling it to increase the vacant homes tax rate to 10%.

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "That Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"notes that:

— addressing vacancy issues and making the best use of existing housing stock is essential in light of the current housing crisis; and

— the Government has developed a multifaceted approach to addressing the issue, and the Vacant Homes Tax (VHT) is one part of a wider suite of measures set out in Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland;

recalls that:

— the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage published the Vacant Homes Action Plan 2023-2026 earlier this year, which outlines progress, and details new actions that will be implemented to continue to return as many vacant properties back to use as soon as possible, increasing the supply of housing available, and revitalising local communities;

— measures already taken by the Government include expanding the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant; funding full-time vacant homes officers in every local authority, exemptions to planning permissions to convert vacant commercial premises to residential use, and enhancing the Nursing Homes Support/Fair Deal Scheme to incentivise the selling or renting of unused homes;

— the action plan includes a €150 million Urban Regeneration and Development Fund for local authorities to acquire vacant or derelict properties and sites for re-use or sale and a new local authority-led programme is being developed to help them buy or compulsory purchase vacant homes in their areas and resell them on the open market; and

— the Government is building on the initial success of the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund vacant property refurbishment scheme and will change the eligibility date for properties to include properties built prior to 2007, and to include properties which are made available for rent and not just owner occupied, with effect from 1st May, 2023;

further notes that:

— reported levels of vacancy captured in Local Property Tax returns are low across all counties and lie within the range that is considered to be in line with a functioning housing market;

— increasing housing supply, is key to improving our housing system and eradicating homelessness, with almost 30,000 homes built last year, an increase of 45 per cent from 2021 (20,560) and 41 per cent from 2019 (21,134), and 5,250 or 21 per cent higher than the Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland target of 24,600 for 2022;

— a record €4.5 billion in State housing investment in 2023 will ensure the substantial uplift in supply in 2022 can be maintained and exceeded, with 9,100 direct build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes to be delivered; and

— a total of 9,169 social homes were delivered in 2021, and furthermore, in 2020 and 2021, more than €88 million was spent in bringing 6,032 vacant social homes back into use;

recognises that:

— this is a new measure with the first returns for VHT due in November 2023 and payment of the tax due on 1st January, 2024;

— the rate of three times a property's base Local Property Tax (LPT) charge, payable in addition to the annual LPT charge, is considered an appropriate level which represents a considerable financial penalty to those who leave properties vacant, and will incentivise property owners to bring such properties back into use;

— the penalty and enforcement regime for VHT is fully aligned with Revenue's tax compliance framework for all taxes and duties that are under its care and management; and

— the legislation underpinning the tax provides for a register of vacant homes to be established and maintained by the Revenue Commissioners; and the collection of data with regard to vacant homes and the maintenance of the register will allow changes in the number of vacant properties to be monitored over time; and

acknowledges therefore that the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners will monitor the VHT as it comes into operation and the Minister for Finance will have no hesitation in reviewing the measure including the rate and how it operates in future budgets."

I thank everyone who has contributed to the debate. I want to address a number of points that have been raised by individual Deputies. In developing a new tax, an important consideration is simplicity. It is important to ensure that the tax is easy to understand and to administer. This is why the rate of the vacant homes tax is based on the local property tax charge, as the local property tax system is well understood. The purpose of the vacant homes taxes is to encourage behavioural change. Accordingly, the rate should be set at a level that will influence the property owner's decision-making. I believe that the tax charged at three times a property's local property tax charge represents a considerable financial penalty to those who would leave properties vacant, and it will incentivise property owners to bring such properties back into use.

This means, for instance, that the owner of a property valued at €400,000 would face an annual vacant homes tax charge of €1,215, in addition to the local property tax charge of €405, while the owner of a property valued at €500,000 would face an annual vacant homes tax charge of €1,485, in addition to the local property tax charge of €495. While a higher rate would mean a greater yield, the policy intent of a vacant homes tax is not to raise revenue. In setting the appropriate rate for tax, I believe that care must be taken to get the balance right between achieving the objective of encouraging the use of available housing without excessively penalising a limited group of property owners.

While I acknowledge the Deputies' good intentions and desire to address the housing crisis, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, has no plans to change the rate of vacant homes tax at this time. He reiterates his belief that the best course of action is to allow the tax to bed in in its present format. As this tax is a new measure, it is important to see how the tax operates after coming into effect before any substantive changes are made. As the Minister said earlier, his Department and the Revenue Commissioners will monitor and review the tax's effectiveness in bringing more properties into use, and if changes are merited in due course, they will be pursued in a future budget.

Addressing vacancy and dereliction and maximising the use of existing housing stock are priority objectives of this Government. The vacant homes tax is only one part of a much wider suite of measures. Housing for All outlines a suite of measures under pathway 4 to address vacancy and effective use of existing stock that includes the town centre first policy. Vacant homes offices have been established in local authorities and full-time vacant home officers are now in place across 30 local authorities. Their role is to identify vacant properties, proactively and systematically engage with the owners and actively promote and lead the uptake of initiatives, schemes and funding programmes that will bring these properties back into use. A new compulsory purchase order, CPO, activation programme has been launched, with targets identified for each local authority to bring properties back into use.

Following the budget, both the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Taoiseach pledged that a mix of carrot and stick measures would be used to deliver housing and specifically in tackling vacancy and dereliction. However, we have yet to see a single real stick in the Government's housing policy. Any suggestion that a tax of 0.3% on vacant homes constitutes either punishment or persuasion is frankly absurd. After six years of promises, and years of urging by the Social Democrats and others, the Government finally introduced a vacant homes tax in October's budget. However, its pathetically low level, its self-assessment nature, the absence of detail on its operation, the lack of any attempt to publicise it and its risibly low penalties all add up to show that the Government is clearly not serious about this tax or, indeed, about housing vacancy.

With this tax, the Government is going through the motions and pretending it is doing something of consequence. All the while, all the indications and signals are that the Government is not serious about it. This spineless intervention is fooling no one. For it to be remotely effective, it would need to be vastly increased. That is why the Social Democrats are proposing a tax with teeth at a rate of 10%. Anything less is destined to fail. A proper vacant homes tax is not about generating revenue. It is about forcing a change in behaviour so that people who are sitting on vacant properties are penalised for doing so, thereby encouraging them to rent, use or sell that property. Instead of that, the Government is engaged in what can only be described as tokenism. It cannot honestly think that a 0.3% tax rate will change anyone's behaviour. For a vacant homes tax to be effective, it must significantly exceed the annual rate of house price inflation. Otherwise, why would people not just continue to leave their properties empty? That is what is likely to happen.

There are also serious questions about self-assessment and enforcement. The Finance Act states that Revenue may request the assistance of local authorities to identify and enforce the tax but we know the very poor record that local authorities have in dealing with vacancy and dereliction. How does the Minister intend to deal with enforcement? Will Revenue use the GeoDirectory, which reports that there are over 83,000 vacant homes and over 21,000 derelict homes nationwide? Will it use those data to cross-reference against self-reporting? Will Revenue contact utility companies to verify connections and usage? It would be helpful to hear what, if anything, the Government is planning to discourage tax avoidance. There is no indication that the Minister means business.

These are legitimate questions to which we still do not have answers. The Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, surely know that unless a tax is penal, unless there is a reasonable chance of people who try to dodge it being caught and unless there are heavy penalties for non-disclosure, nobody will take the tax seriously. Is this actually the Government's intention? It is difficult not to come to that conclusion. What is the Government going to do to create public awareness of people's obligation to register? Surely the Government knows that it should be sending out a signal to property owners that unjustifiable vacancy will not be tolerated any longer. Instead it seems like it is business as usual for this Government. There is nothing at all on the Citizens Information website. Laughably, Revenue's website still states that further details will be published following the enactment of the Finance Bill 2022. That legislation was signed into law on 15 December 2022. Even the vacant homes action plan published earlier this year is very short on detail. In the context of our housing crisis, where people's lives and life choices are hugely negatively impacted, it is frankly indefensible for the Government not to tackle vacancy in a serious way. Too many people are paying the price for the Government's failure to do so.

We should contrast what is happening in respect of vacancy in Ireland with what the Spanish Government has just announced. It has announced that 50,000 vacant homes are going to be brought back into use and made available at affordable rents for adults who are still living with their parents. That is the kind of initiative we need. It is making good use of its housing stock and is giving people the ability to live independently and get on with their lives. It is a welcome measure and the Government here should be looking at similar measures.

Earlier in the discussion, the Minister for Finance talked about the Central Statistics Office census data. We have an unusual situation where the Government seems to rely on the CSO census data for everything except vacant homes. That is incredibly unusual and we must ask ourselves why it is the case. The Minister for Finance was quite dismissive of the census data on vacancy. He claimed that of the 160,000 vacant homes recorded in the last census, excluding holiday homes, a considerable number could be empty because people were on holiday for a few weeks and that was why the houses could be counted as vacant. If the Minister knew about these data, he would know that the CSO vacancy data are compiled by an enumerator classifying a dwelling as vacant if there was no contact with the property owner following multiple visits and after inquiries were made with neighbours.

Enumerators cannot classify a home as vacant simply because it is empty on the basis that somebody is on holidays. They must visit it on multiple occasions and must also check with the neighbours that the home is actually vacant and not that somebody is on their holidays. After that, field supervisors are required to approve the classification of each dwelling as vacant. Huge resources are put into the census collection of vacancy data. It is very serious that the Minister for Finance, who is charged with implementation of the vacant homes tax, does not understand the census vacancy data and how they are collected. That is very serious because it means the Cabinet, when it made its decision on setting the vacant homes tax at a derisory 0.3%, did not understand the census data on this.

Given that, I implore the Government to revisit its decision on this. It was clearly made on a misunderstanding of the census data. In the Dáil today the Minister for Finance did not understand it. I urge the Government to look at this again and consider what can be done to bring vacant homes back into use. We need the Government to take this matter completely seriously. If it is going to dismiss the census data, which it does not do in any other area, we need it to at least understand how those data are collected and understand the detail of this. The people are relying on it to understand that and get to grips with the housing vacancy problem we have. It is not okay for the Minister for Finance not to understand how those vacancy data are collected. It is not okay for decisions to be made under misunderstandings of those data. It is not okay for the Government countermotion only to cite the lowest possible count of vacancy in the country and to ignore the GeoDirectory data and census data.

We need the Government to move heaven and earth on this housing crisis. That means building more homes and taking a range of different measures, but it also means tackling vacancy and taking it with the utmost seriousness. It is not okay to have more than 100,000 vacant homes across the country not brought back into use. Of course, as we said before, there must be fair exemptions for genuine reasons for vacancy. After that, we need to do everything we can to get these homes back into use, get people out of homeless emergency accommodation and get adults in their 20s, 30s and into their 40s out of their parents' homes.

In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is postponed until the next weekly division time.