Farmers all over Ireland are still fighting inclusion of their land on the vacant site register. This is despite clear and unambiguous statements from Minister Eoghan Murphy and Minister of State John Paul Phelan that farmland should not be included on the register, as it is neither vacant or idle.

Despite this, local authorities insist that they are properly applying the legislation for the levy. One farmer whose farm is in a zoned area adjacent to a mid-sized commuter town sought an independent valuation of his lands to gauge the extent of any liability. He was told it could exceed €500,000 annually.

The levy is applied at 7% of the assessed value of the land. If land were valued at €150,000, the annual levy due would be €10,500, near to the sale value of farmland.

Kilkenny County Council, the first local authority to include farmland on the vacant site levy register, subsequently removed all actively farmed farmland on foot of legal advice. Kilkenny County Council’s director of services Sean McKeown apologised on behalf of the council in the letter to the families concerned, confirming the decision to remove them.

The urgency for a clarifying circular instructing local authorities to recognise that land owned and actively farmed by farm families should not be included grows.