Two county councils have given up on imposing the new vacant site levy on farmed land in recent weeks. Cork County Council has now clarified to the Irish Farmers Journal that “no levy will apply” to eligible farmed land, but its owners will remain on the name-and-shame vacant site register of land hoarders on the local authority’s website. The council has valued those lands at between €75,000/ac and €140,000/ac.
The Irish Farmers Journal has also seen successive letters from Sligo County Council to a farmer attempting to place his property on the vacant site register, then retracting the claim within the past two months. Our reporter visited the site, which comprises grazing ground and active farm machinery parked in sheds.
These examples illustrate how farmed land continues to be treated differently from one county to the next, with no co-ordinated efforts to enforce a national exemption for farmers as the first bills for the 3% levy go out this month. This will increase to 7% of the land’s valuation next year.
Outcry
Following farmer outcry earlier this year, the Government passed amended legislation through the Oireachtas in July. The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Development then wrote to all local authorities twice to clarify that “land which was purchased prior to its designation as residential land, and which continues to be operated for farming purposes, shall be exempt from the levy”.
A spokesperson for the Department did not answer questions on the number of farmed properties among nearly 300 entered into the vacant site register – 140 of them in time to pay the levy this year.
“It is a matter for each authority to implement and administer the levy provisions in their respective functional areas,” the spokesperson said.
“The legislation contains a number of independent appeal mechanisms to the board [An Bord Pleanála] and also the Valuation Tribunal,” they added. “It is a matter for each owner to engage the appeal mechanisms.”
Some local authorities, such as Kilkenny County Council, took notice of the new policy and quickly removed farmed land from their vacant site register. Others did not.
In those cases, the appeal route has not helped farmers. An Bord Pleanála rejected appeals for several pieces of agricultural land in Co Cork through July. It made one decision on 19 July, the day the President signed the farm exemption into law, and another one a week later.
One lost appeal is now before the High Court and An Bord Pleanála has obtained five postponements since September. A spokesperson said An Bord Pleanála was still working to define its legal position. The Irish Farmers Journal has not found a trace of any appeals won on foot of the farm exemption so far.
Meanwhile, it is unclear how many local authorities are continuing to put farmed land on the vacant site register to tax it in future years. Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy said that the vacant site levy would raise an estimated €9m in 2019 and €28.2m in 2020. He was replying to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil housing spokesperson Darragh O’Brien TD, who noted “serious inconsistencies” in the implementation of the levy.
“Each local authority seems to be taking a different approach to rolling it out,” Deputy O’Brien said, doubting that it would address housing shortages.
Vacant site levy and farmland: three years of chaos