IFA farm business chair Rose Mary McDonagh has said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s commitment in the Dáil last week to “fix” the new Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) this summer – so it does not threaten the livelihoods of active farmers – is a move in the right direction.

“It is encouraging to see that the Government is at last realising the devastating effect this penal tax would have had on farm families throughout the country.

“Actively farmed land isn’t in any way land hoarding or speculation, and it’s positive that the Government seem to accept that,” McDonagh said.

Exemption

“We have been lobbying for an exemption since the RZLT was mooted in the Finance Act in 2021, and our offer to meet and work with Government to find a fair and equitable solution to this issue still stands.

“A framework can be put in place to identify what is genuinely farmed land, to protect farm families from a severe annual tax liability,” she said.

“Amended legislation is required urgently to ensure actively farmed land is excluded from the RZLT.

“Otherwise, it will financially ruin farm families across every village and town in Ireland,” the IFA farm business chair concluded.