I raise the issue of the residential zoned land tax and its implications for family farms around the country. Farmers are private landowners. They are not builders. They own the land to farm it and try to make a living from it. They do not hoard it as an investment. The fact that farmers are completely unaware that some of their land is being zoned for residential purposes leaves them in a very precarious predicament. In Killarney, of more than 200 acres of land zoned for residential use, only around ten acres are being built on each year. Some farmers will find themselves paying this tax for the next 20 years until the land is used up.

The way land is being zoned is through a desktop study being done by the local authorities. They are not looking on the ground or talking to owners to see whether the land will become available. In many small rural towns around the country, farmers are farming right up to the town boundaries and beyond. They are now being caught up in this residential tax, even though they are not hoarding land. Their land has been zoned by the local authority without their knowledge or consent. They are fearful that they will be paying tax from money they are trying to eke out of the land in order to stave off something that is beyond their control.

The farming organisations are very concerned about this. More to the point, they have tried to discuss it with different Departments. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage tells them it is an issue for the Revenue Commissioners and the Revenue Commissioners tell them that it is a local authority housing issue. At this stage we need clarity from the Minister and we also need to make sure that no matter what happens, a farmer who is making a living from land, be it zoned for residential development or not, is not liable to a residential tax on the land. It is important we do that and provide a derogation so that farmers do not have to pay the tax.

In places where local area plans are being done, there is zone 1 and zone 2 zoning. Zone 1 is land which is going to be used first and zone 2 is land that will be used when zone 1 is complete. That never happens yet farmers will find themselves in a position where they are paying this unjust tax. I ask the Government to look at this and make it clear, once and for all, that farmers who can produce a herd number and show they are functional farmers on the land will not be liable for any tax. That must be made abundantly clear to all farmers who at this stage are worried sick about what they may face when this tax is brought in.

I thank Deputy Canney for raising this matter. In many ways it speaks to the issue we have been discussing for the past half an hour. Everyone agrees there is a housing crisis and we face a huge challenge to deliver homes all over the country. However, as soon as something is proposed that is an imposition on somebody, in some cases a major imposition, then objections are raised, progress is stalled and barriers are put in the way. That is the fundamental choice we face as a country.

On this issue, when locally elected members agree on their development plan and decide, having taken advice on board, that a land bank is suitable and appropriate for development and is situated in an area where land is serviced and close to amenities and so on, it is to be expected that the Government will seek to ensure that, wherever possible, that land bank is developed in accordance with the locally adopted county development plan. Having said that, there is of course a mechanism for this tax to be avoided.

As the Deputy knows, the mapping process is now at an advanced stage. It involves public notification of draft and supplemental maps with a related national and local communications campaign which is under way. Landowners and interested parties may make submissions to the local authority. Landowners can appeal the decision of the local authority to retain their land on the map to An Bord Pleanála. As a once-off provision during 2022 and 2023, landowners may also request the local authority to rezone their land to remove it from the scope of the tax. It is open to anyone who is directly affected by this tax that comes into being in 2024 to have their land bank removed from the scope of the tax.

We cannot have it every way. People cannot have their land zoned and keep the zoning into the future while, at the same time, avoid the tax that is intended to stimulate supply. It goes back to the heart of the issue we have been discussing for the past 30 minutes or so because there has been a long build-up to this measure. As Members know, it was legislated for in the Finance Act 2021. The tax measure will be levied at 3% of the market value of the zoned land. The local authorities have gone through an extensive mapping process at this point. In regard to land in agricultural use specifically, only farming land which is zoned solely or primarily for residential purposes will be in scope. Agricultural land zoned for a mixture of uses, including residential, is not in scope as farming is a trade or profession benefiting from an exemption in the legislation. In that respect and in regard to the provision that is there, a facility is being provided for a proposal to be made for land to be dezoned, thereby completely taking a land bank out of this particular new tax. We believe that this is a fair and proportionate intervention by the State given the scale of the challenge we face to bring newly zoned land to the market whereby homes can be built for our people.

I feel frustration when somebody raises an issue about a tax such as this which is trying to free up land to have houses built on it. However, I believe this is an imposition on farmers and it should be wiped off the agenda. What Minister is devising this policy? Will that Minister meet farmers’ representatives in order that they can get a clearer understanding of what is going on? I know of land zoned in towns and villages in my constituency and throughout Galway that will never be used, for one reason or another but not because it is being hoarded. Land has been zoned in Tuam where there is no access to the land to build a house on it. That kind of daft zoning is not the fault of the farmer or the landowner because they were never consulted about it. They have no interest in hoarding or making a bundle of money out of it. They are not trying to turn it over to make a pound. Which Minister is responsible for this tax so that the farming bodies can meet and discuss it with him or her?

I thank Deputy Canney. There is no problem with engagement, which should always take place between stakeholders. Of course farmers have issues with this measure and will be affected by it. This is a tax of the Department of Finance. The Revenue Commissioners are involved. The local authorities have a central role, as has the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the relevant Minister is directly involved as well.

The draft maps were published by all 31 local authorities on 1 November 2022. Where what the Deputy described as “daft zoning” took place, it should be undone immediately. As the Deputy said, where land is never going to be developed, not for hoarding reasons but for other reasons, such as that it cannot be accessed, there is no point in letting it remain on a county development plan map as zoned land suitable for development. The easiest way out of all that is to dezone that land. That will completely remove it from the scope of the zoned land tax. There will be no issue with engagement in that respect.

I repeat that key point: we cannot have it every way. As I say, we have a huge crisis, we have a challenge and then the first time the Government brings in a new initiative in respect of zoned land to bring it to the market and to get homes built, we have issues which are raised by way of objection.