A NUMBER OF Green Party politicians have not held back today in voicing their disdain at a decision to defer taxing undeveloped land. 

It is understood the Greens side of the government were “blindsided” by the Irish Independent report that Finance Minister Jack Chambers is set to defer the Residential Zoned Land Tax for another year.

The tax is targeted at zoned, serviced residential development lands, including mixed-use lands, with the tax rate set at 3% of the land’s market value annually.

The new tax was set to kick in in February, with bills coming due in May 2025. 

Last year, local authorities published maps of areas where landowners will be subject to the new tax with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien stating that only one-sixth of residentially-zoned land is activated for housing during a given local authority’s six-year development plan.

This tax measure, which has had a long-lead in time, was promoted by government as a measure to incentivise landowners to use existing planning permissions for housing.

Deferring the tax by one year

Chambers told RTÉ News yesterday that he intends to defer the tax for one year only, as he wants to ensure active farmers are fully excluded from it.

“I’m working on proposals to defer the residential zoned land tax for a further year, and this is to exclude active farmers from this tax.

“It would place a disproportionate and unfair burden on active farmers if this tax was to be imposed annually,” he said. 

His comments came after Taoiseach Simon Harris said it is “offensive” to describe farmers as land-hoarders and defended plans to defer the tax.

“As long as I’m Taoiseach, no active farmer is going to pay a residential land tax – simple as.”

“This land tax is absolutely about making sure people can’t hoard land. It was never meant to be about penalising an active farmer,” said the Taoiseach.

Since those remarks, a number of members of the Green Party have voiced their anger over the move.

It is understood those within the party are angry that “no heads up” was given that this was in the works, particularly as the tax was legislated for back in 2021, and deferred in last year’s budget so that everyone could get their ducks in a row.

Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan said if the government are serious about tackling the housing crisis then land that is zoned and serviced as well as earmarked by councils for housing should be utilised, and if not, taxed for lying idle.

She told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland: “We’re in the run up to an election and we know that what we’re seeing right now is a step back from something that was agreed five years ago.”

Land hoarding is one of the biggest problems in terms of delivering affordable housing, she said, stating that “now we’re putting it probably on the never, never, not even on the long finger. For a Fianna Fáil minister to do this particularly is shocking”.

She added that the finance minister, as a Dublin minister, is going to have to stand on doorsteps in Dublin West and defend putting off the tax measure that she said will fundamentally deal with the price of housing.

‘Like hiding food in a famine’

Deferring the tax is “like hiding food in a famine”, she added. 

Hourigan said there is already an exemption for farmers who are working the land, whereby farmers can opt out and ask for their land to be dezoned. 

Education Minister Norma Foley today defended the decision, stating that she wanted to commend the finance minister, calling the deferment “the right move”.

“I think there’s a recognition that we also have to support farmers who are active on the ground. Agriculture and its importance should never be underestimated. Those who are actively farming, those who are using the land for the purpose of agriculture, I don’t think that they should be caught in a bind,” said Foley. 

“So we need to reflect on that, and we need to preserve that, but equally so, we need to drive ahead, obviously, with housing,” she said, stating that it was about “doing both equally and doing both fairly”.

It is understood the Greens want a solution found sooner rather than later and are seeking a reversal of the decision to defer the tax.

Those within the party state that there is real concern that speculators, who are sitting on parcels of land that has been zoned, have no intention of building on the land, and are simply sitting on it as its value increases every year. 

While the Greens are now at loggerheads with their coalition partners in government, there is an assumption now that a solution will be found and the deferment will not take place. 

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One today, Minister of State Ossian Smyth said: “Here we are three years later [from the original agreement] and some politicians think it should be deferred for another year”.

When asked about the decision to defer the tax, he said: “I’m sure they won’t [defer it], how could they, that’s not going to happen.”

Pushing out the tax is being seen by the Greens as an own goal of sorts by Fianna Fáil given that the party holds the housing brief and also as an easy topic for Sinn Féin to highlight.

Sinn Féin has criticised the move, saying that the deferral will benefit developers who are speculating on land.