I want to raise the issue of the residential zoned land tax. It has created a huge amount of confusion for many farmers who have land which is adjacent to or inside the boundaries of these local area plans. In Galway, the Tuam local area plan is now being done for the next five years. We have the same thing in Ballinasloe, Gort and a few other places. The people who own these lands are farming the lands, or they at least have farmers who are farming them. Their concern is these lands are now being put on public display as being zoned or whatever. There has been no consultation or they are not being notified that these lands are being zoned. What is the position on taxing farmers who are farming their land, need the land for their farming enterprise and are not hoarding the land to make money or profit on it? Where there is land which is zoned phase 1 or phase 2, will the Tánaiste clarify that phase 2 land is not liable to this tax because the land will not be used or developed until phase 1 is completed? There seems to be huge confusion and it is causing a lot of stress.

I am getting a lot of representations from people who have land in these areas, wondering what they should do, what they can do and where they can get information. The local authority will tell them it does not know what is happening until the end of the year because it is a Revenue issue. We need to get clarity for people who own land who are in this position. There are some people who might not even be in the country who own land who will never know that it has been zoned because they are some place else, they have emigrated or whatever. There is a huge uncertainty and confusion, and then, like everything else, there is a lot of information going around which cannot be validated. In the interest of clarity, will the Tánaiste explain what is going to happen with all of this?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Of course, the origins of the residential zoned land tax lie in the context of the debate we have just had. The Government is totally focused on increasing the supply of housing. Any land that is zoned or that people sought zoning for that is not used for housing, we want used for housing. That is the fundamental objective here, to deal with the issue of supply. The only way we can deal with the housing crisis is to have additional housing supply. This would have the impact of incentivising people to develop, but in a different way because it creates a penalty for the lack of development.

I think the Deputy has raised legitimate points in respect of those who may never have sought their land to be zoned in the first instance but which may be subject to county development plan zoning. The opportunity exists in that case for people to appeal both to the local authority to have their land essentially dezoned. Land in active agricultural use within mixed use zonings, in particular, may not meet the criteria for falling within the scope of the tax and, if so, should not be reflected in the draft residential zoned land tax.

The Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government is assessing the amount of land in scope for the tax. It estimates that approximately 10,000 ha is within the scope on the published draft maps. It is not possible to quantify how much of this land is in active agricultural use. However, it is estimated that the majority of agricultural land across the country is not affected by the tax. All 31 local authorities published draft plans in November of last year. Landowners and interested parties made a total of 1,687 submissions to the local authorities by 1 January. The local authorities will assess submissions and decide to retain or remove land from the maps. There is some latitude in terms of that deadline. If people missed the deadline, they can apply. Landowners can appeal the decision of the local authority to retain their land on the map where the local authority considers that the land falls within the scope, notwithstanding the submissions to An Bord Pleanála. If the local authority says "No" and it wants to zone the land, it can go to An Bord Pleanála.

As a once-off provision during 2022-2023, landowners may also request the local authority to rezone their land to remove it from the scope of the tax. A total of 210 submissions requesting a change to zoning were made to local authorities by 1 January 2023 on the draft maps. Again, we would seek latitude in that respect if people missed that particular deadline.

The next stage is the publication in May of a supplemental map by local authorities identifying additional land that has fallen into the scope, with provision for landowner submissions and appeals of decisions as took place within the draft maps. The final maps will be published on 1 December this year and will be updated annually thereafter. With regard to phasing, the legislation states that all land that is zoned and serviced and does not benefit from the exclusion will be within the scope of the tax.

In terms of the Deputy's latter point, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Finance are aware of situations where phasing objectives within development plans may prevent the development of phase 2 lands until phase 1 lands have been developed. The Department is considering this matter currently. I do not think it is on that somebody who, through no fault of their own, is not developing in phase 2 should be taxed.

Just for clarity, phase 2 land cannot be developed, full stop, until all of phase 1 land has been used up. There should be no liability to any owner of that land while it remains in phase 2. That needs to be set out clearly because a tax cannot be put on something when somebody is not making it available because it is not going to be used.

My other concern about all of this, going back to the discussion we had about housing, is that we are trying to zone more land to make sure the price of land for development comes down while at the same time we are pushing up the price of developing land. For instance, in Tuam, where are we going zone land now? The proposal from the county council is to reduce the town area. Land that was zoned previously has been taken out of it and it is all being pushed into the centre. Some of that land is not accessible or serviced. We have what I see as a mechanism, through these local area plans, whereby the price of developing land is being driven up because it is being made very scarce. Why have we phase 1 and phase 2? Why do we not zone land that is suitable for development, full stop, so that we have more of a supply, thus reducing the price of the land and making housing more affordable?

The view generally is that we have a lot of zoned land that has not been used. The objective is to use it. People who have sought zonings should use the zoning and get houses built.

That is the key.

The Deputy's point about phase 2 is fair, I think. That is being examined by the two Departments at the moment. The issue has been raised. There is a desire to have more compact growth in towns and cities, which makes sustainable sense in terms of climate, congestion and access to services. That is a broader planning objective people have subscribed to. There are some towns, though, where there has been questionable dezoning of land that no one has sought. Given the housing crisis we are in, we should be looking for the opportunities to get houses built. All of this is about the housing crisis in the first instance, to get more supply and to get more houses built. Ultimately, that is the way we sort the housing crisis.