1921. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether the Government will consider introducing stronger penalties for the hoarding of development land; the progress made on long-planned measures to tackle land speculation and incentivise the timely development of land suitable for housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63378/26]

Delivering Homes, Building Communities, the Government Action Plan on housing supply and targeting homelessness, identifies the implementation of the Residential Zoned Land Tax in Action 1.12 as a key measure to penalise land hoarding and to ensure that zoned and serviced land is developed in an effective and timely manner for new homes.

As part of the process for identifying land liable to Residential Zoned Land Tax, all local authorities published annual draft maps on 1 February 2025 that identified lands considered to fall within the scope of the tax, as well as lands which they proposed to exclude from the annual final maps for 2026. Landowners and other interested parties had until 1 April 2025 to make a submission to the relevant local authority about whether or not land on this annual draft map met the criteria for being subject to the tax. Further to determinations relating to these submissions and any related appeals to An Coimisiún Pleanála, the maps were finalised and a final map indicating land liable to the tax for 2026 was published on 31 January 2026, in advance of the annual liability date of 1 February. The tax is administered and collected by the Revenue Commissioners.

Overall, circa 5,130 hectares of land comprising residential zoned land is identified on the final maps for 2026. Under the legislation, local authorities are required to publish the total area of land in hectares contained on their maps.

Figures provided by the Revenue Commissioners (August 2026) indicate that approximately €79m of the €119m declared liability in 2026 was deferred due to a recent grant of planning permission, or a commencement of a planning permission indicating that housing development is being activated on land liable to the tax.