Danny Healy-Rae: Calls for tax relief to unlock 55 vacant homes

Minister Kahiruk, I am glad to get the chance to raise these very important issues to hear tonight to discuss and deal with the issues preventing homeowners from renting out vacant houses and also the tax that people have to pay, up to 50% tax when they rent out a private house or a house that they want to rent out. 50% of 800 is only 400 in, it's not worth foil for many of the people that I know with these type of houses, it's not worth their foil and in their risking the other thing Minister is that they can't get the tenants out when they want to get them out and that's happening a lot and people are afraid to actually rent their houses and people will tell you that the RTB have too much say and too much power and that they're in favour of the renter rather than the house on it, but it is biting the renters as well when houses are vacant, when houses are vacant are available to rent them. So I raised this issue back with the Taoiseach back two years ago, almost two years ago now and these houses are given an instance of one road that I know very well from the top of the town in Kilmer through Kilgarven and almost all the ways down into Kilmer, within five miles of Kilmerney town. There's 55 houses, you can get on the bus, the bus is passing every half an hour almost and there's transport available and they're there but they're closed down, no one wants to rent them out because of the two issues that I've said to you. And we must do everything, there's so much talk about housing here since I came up here in 2016, that if every word that was spoken was a block, a concrete block, we'd have hundreds of houses built around the country and there'd be no problem because there'd be more houses than what was needed. We must do everything and we'll consider that these houses are vacant. They're fine houses and the other thing then is there's this Creek Innere grant is a great grant, but it takes too long to administer and there's too many loops and hoops to go through and to get over and first of all I want to thank the people that are administrating it in Kerry County Council, great carers and they're doing their very best, but it takes up to two years and many people are shying away from availing of the grant because the timeframe should be made much quicker. And I'm asking to do something to incentivise householders to rent out their houses, something like the 800 tax-free that was given to the Ukraine people and I didn't realise until lately that the government is actually paying the 800. And I'm not asking for that at all even, and I do want our own people to be seen after, but what I'm asking is that the house owners would get 800 tax-free. There's another thing there, 14,000 for those who rent a room in cities or whatever. That should be expanded. So a scheme like that takes allow people not to have to pay the tax or to get some help so that they would rent the houses because paying 50% back. These houses are not in, how to say populated areas, but they'd be, they'd be grand and, and, and they could be grand if, if they, if they, if the house owners got help tax-wise or some incentive, some incentive to help them to go down the road of renting. And you see, if we've got them, if we've got them at it, they'd stay at it. But there's so much, uh, soul grapes about not being able to get people out of their houses when they want to get them out, and the tax they'd have to pay, they're not bothering to rent them out at all. Thank you, and again, just to thank the Deputy Healy Ray for, for raising this issue. If, if there's a situation where there's 55 vacant homes within one town in Kerry, that's not, that's not good enough. And that's something that we absolutely need to address. I mean, there's one of the solutions, it's only on one road. I mean, it's, it's, it's absolutely something that we need to tackle. And we have the Cree Conaghy grant, you know, that, that was an effort to bring more of those properties back into the rental market, but clearly we need to do more. Look, I'm, my answer here covers a lot of the situations where, um, a house can be taken back from, from, uh, a tenant, uh, and it covers some of the taxation, but obviously a lot of taxation that you mentioned would be for the Minister for Finance, but I certainly will, will bring it back. Um, I can assure the house that I set out in the program for government. This government remains focused on growing the supply of much needed rental accommodation and commits to continuing its support for renters and landlords along with tackling vacancy and dereliction with enhanced compulsory purchase order powers and an ambitious grant system. The government appreciates that a landlord may sometimes need to take back possession of their property. Where a tenancy is of less than six months duration, a landlord is not required to cite a reason for any notice of termination. In general, after six months, the landlord must state in the notice of termination one or more of the following reasons, uh, to, to end the, uh, to issue the notice of termination. The tenant has failed to comply with the obligations of the tenancy. The dwelling is no longer suited to the needs of the occupying household. The landlord intends to sell the dwelling within nine months of the termination date. The landlord requires the dwelling for own or family member occupation. Vacant possession is required for substantial refurbishment of the dwelling and or the landlord intends to change the use of the dwelling. The Residence Tenancies Board, or the RTB, established as an independent statutory body under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to 2024, provides a tenancy dispute resolution service. In 2024, my department completed a review of the Irish rental sector. This review noted clear challenges with the current system of rental controls, while acknowledging the need to ensure the regular system for the rental market adequately balances the interests of the landlords and the tenants. My department requested the housing agency to undertake a review to assess the operation of rent controls, and it is expected that this review will be completed by the end of March, 2025. The review will also consider the recommendations of the housing commission's relation, uh, uh, relate the recommendations of the housing commission relating to rent regulation. Any potential future policy options that arise from this review will be considered by the government. The Minister for Finance has responsibility for taxation measures, but recent tax measures have been for benefit to the sector. The amount of tax-deductible pre-letting expenditure was doubled to 10,000 in respect of a property that lay vacant for six months. This is reduced from 12 months. The residential, uh, uh, premises rental income relief was introduced to benefit landlords with relief worth up to 600 euro, and this year and rising up to 1,000 euro from 2026. And finally, the rent tax credit has increased from 1,000 euro per renter backdated to 2024. So there are measures there I've set out. I suppose the situations where a tenancy can be, um, ended, but, uh, you're right. We need, most of the landlords out there, um, have perhaps one or two properties, uh, for rent. They're not making extraordinary amounts of money out of it, but at the same time it has to make sense for them to stay in the market. And that's why we have an issue. A lot of, um, uh, these rental properties are being sold, um, into, into private ownership, and that may not necessarily be for someone who has a housing need or who's looking for a first home home. So we need to do it. We need to look, we need to listen. We need to go back to the Minister for Finance and look at, um, taxation, et cetera. Um, but it's, it's, it's, it's an issue and not just in Kerry and West Cork as well, that needs to be addressed. We need to get vacant properties back into the rental market. Well, Minister, I want to thank you very much for the, for, for your reply. And I know about all the reasons that you've given there about how, uh, a tenant, uh, would have to leave. I know all about that, but in theory, it is very hard to get that through and to get your house back. And as I said to you about the road from Kimair to, to Kilgaren and down five miles within Killarney, that's just one road. I believe there are hundreds of houses where they think of them, even inside Killarney, that are idle in, in, in Marion Terrace and Brindle's Terrace and all them places inside the town of Killarney. And it's just because it's not worth their oil rent in the houses. And when they want them back at a certain date, a fellow went to Australia, uh, for a year, and he said he want his house back. He didn't get it back for three years when he came home. And that, that, they shouldn't have to go through that. And that's not fair. Um, there's so many different ways and we're, we're, we're here to help each other to, to address the housing, uh, the housing problem. Voids, as far as Kerry County counts and the local authority, uh, there's too much of a cost put on the need, uh, for the amount of money that, that's needed for, to, to, to get the houses fit. The, the, the, some of these houses, there was three of them in Killarney, I raised it lately, I think, for yourself. Uh, it was demanded by the department that they should, uh, take, uh, down the chimneys. There was no need in the world in it. There was the people, people inside those houses, up until a few months ago. Only paint them and do them up a bit or whatever was needed. And bedsits. Why did in 2015 or 16, he ruled out bedsits? The people, young people lived in them forever in a day, going back until then. And, and they were, um, they were excluded, you know, not allowed anymore. Bedsits at that time, they, they just had the room and came out to the top of the stairs or somewhere and they all used the one bathroom. Now you have the facility of having an en suite and all those kinds of things. Because in, in, in, in, in all honesty, uh, minister, these people really torn, hadn't been torn inside in the bed and they're out of it again. They just want a place to change their clothes and lie down for a couple of hours and get going again while they're young. And to take a lot of people off of the housing list. Those kinds of things we need to address the voids and the reason why, uh, people aren't renting out their houses. Please do that. And any of my support, a hundred percent to do that. Thank you very much. Thank you deputy. And you are making some good suggestions there and they have to be, uh, taken on board, especially if we're partaking in any reviews, but I think there has to be a question of balance here as well, a balance of the tenants rights. And when we can't, we can't, um, uh, I suppose overdo it in that we take away tenants rights. They are, they are entitled to have right of tenure and so that they're not in precarious situations, but obviously, um, the, the regulation of landlords has to be balanced as well in that essentially it has to be worked someone's while in order to stay in that rental sector. Otherwise we lose all these properties to, uh, to private sale, et cetera, for people who may not necessarily need them as their first time home. So that, that a hundred percent has to be taken into account and you've made that point. Well, but in relation to the vacant houses as well, and we're going to have to make a very difficult decision here, um, where I know in, in tourism towns and my constituency, and I bet you have a tune in towns in your constituency where you'll have a whole row of hoses that are completely vacant. You probably found it when you were canvassing, you were knocking on doors and for about 10 hoses in a row, there was no one there. A lot of these are in Airbnbs. A lot of these are in, in short term nets. We need short term nets. Places like Kerry need short term nets for tourism. That's a hundred percent right. But again, we have to strike a balance there. We can't have whole streets taken up with, um, Airbnbs essentially, which is what has happened in some towns. So, so we have to find a balance there. Look, we need, whether it's through taxation, whatever measures we take, if you're, if you're telling me, and, and I agree with you, there are issues in that people are having difficulty in terms of renting out their properties, whether it's reviewing the Cree-Conogha fund, making it, uh, increasing the, the amount of grants available. That's something perhaps that could be looked at. Whatever we need to do to get these vacant properties into the rental market, we should be doing. But I want to thank you again for, for raising this issue.