Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 July 2023
207. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Finance what influence, if any, his Department or the Revenue Commissioners have on the adoption of the broad-brush approach used to creating, mapping and implementing the residential zoned land tax. [34203/23]
View answerA key objective of the Government’s Housing for All plan is a pathway to increase housing supply, including a focus on providing an adequate supply of available serviced zoned land for the development of housing. In this regard, provision was made for a new tax on land zoned for residential development, which also has the necessary services in place. The purpose of this Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) is to encourage development of appropriately zoned and serviced land. It is designed primarily as a behaviour changing measure and not to be a significant revenue raising measure.
Finance Act 2021 introduced Part 22A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, which outlines the process by which a mapping exercise is undertaken by local authorities to identify zoned and serviced land which falls within the scope of RZLT. The legislation provides that each local authority will prepare and publish a final map identifying land within the scope of the tax by 1 December 2023. Draft zoned land maps were prepared and published by local authorities for their respective functional areas by 1 November 2022. Supplemental maps were published by local authorities by 1 May 2023.
The Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners had no influence or role in the approach taken, broad-brush or otherwise, to create the residential zoned land maps for the purposes of the residential zoned land tax.
I have been informed by officials in Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage that local authority planning departments, in conjunction with Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage, published a Residential Land Availability Survey (RLAS) in February 2015, covering all lands zoned for residential development in statutory local authority development plans and local area plans across Ireland. The survey showed the location and quantity of lands that may be regarded as being undeveloped and available for residential development purposes in each local authority area.
I have also been informed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage that the aggregate area of all such private and public land identified in 2015 amounted to 17,434 hectares which, given a range of densities applicable to whether the lands are in small villages or in larger towns and cities and as determined by the relevant local authorities, was estimated to ultimately enable the construction of in excess of 400,000 dwellings.
