One of the more effective tools in the Government's housing policy is the residential zoned land tax, which seeks to release land that is zoned for development to housing. An anomaly is arising in a number of local authorities with regard to those that use the zonings R1 and R2, R1 being priority residential zoning and R2 being land that is to be developed only after all the R1 land has been developed. I have been contacted by two landowners in two towns in my constituency of Galway East who have an R2 zoning. Their land is technically zoned for housing but they have been informed by the local authority that they cannot develop it. It is serviced and I expect they will be lumbered with this tax even though they do not have the capacity to develop the land right now. Could that anomaly be looked at to see if it could be resolved?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. A number of people have raised the matter of phased zoning, where the zoning will take place after another development is done. We are looking at that specific issue. The residential zoned land tax, as the Deputy rightly said, is about activation and making sure people are not sitting on land that could be developed and ensuring it is developed. In those instances, we are looking at a solution where the land's zoning is predicated on other lands being developed before it. We can work through that and I will keep the Deputy informed on the issue.