I wish the Taoiseach and everybody in the House a happy new year. I want to ask the Taoiseach about a matter I have been raising here on a very regular basis over the years, namely, derelict housing and the opportunities there to bring thousands and thousands of housing units back into use in a relatively short period. I am asking that renewed focus be put on putting in place the proper conditions and incentives to ensure first-time buyers can avail of these properties and to ensure people who are currently hoarding these properties make them available on the market to first-time buyers. The financial supports should be there for first-time buyers to do up these properties because as the Taoiseach is aware, the cost of materials and labour is incredibly high at the moment. We all know these properties are there. They are all over the place in all our communities. We are in the middle of a housing crisis and the slowness with which these properties are being renovated is not acceptable. More needs to be done.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It was raised earlier as well but Deputy Griffin has had a consistent interest in this. It is the intention of the Government to introduce a vacant property tax next year. The Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Act 2021 introduced by the Minister for Finance has enabled Revenue to collect certain information on vacant properties in the local property tax, LPT, return forms submitted by residential property owners last month in respect of the new LPT valuation period 2022-25. Those returns are currently being analysed by Revenue and included information on the quantity, locations and characteristics of long-term vacant properties as of 1 November 2021. The Minister will receive the results of Revenue's analysis of this information early this year. That analysis, together with other available sources of information will be used by the Minister and his officials to inform the optimum design of a vacant property tax. It will be important in designing that tax to achieve an appropriate balance between placing enough pressure on vacant home owners to allow the measure to actually work as an incentive and ensuring any such tax does not arbitrarily or excessively penalise homeowners in a discriminatory way.