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Government hopes to bring homes into use with new vacant property tax

A vacant homes tax will be set at three times the local property tax to provoke owners to sell or rent.

THE GOVERNMENT MAY ratchet up a new vacant homes tax in the future depending on how it works after it enters force in November, the Taoiseach said today.

The planed new tax will target 60,000 properties across Ireland and it will be at a rate three times that of the local property tax when it enters force at the start of November.

It is aimed at making more housing available by encouraging those who own empty houses to put them up for sale or into the rental market.

Details of a Revenue document were published in the Irish Independent today revealing  a vacant house worth €300,000 will have a rate due of €945.

The levy will apply to all unoccupied homes that have not been used as a dwelling for thirty days between November of last year and the end of October of this year. Exemptions will be included for homes that are undergoing refurbishment or are holiday homes. 

Speaking to The Journal, during a visit to Fota Wildlife Park in Co Cork, Leo Varadkar said that the Government will see if it has an impact long term.

“The idea behind the vacant homes tax is essentially to impose tax returns on homes that are vacant without good reason.

“We have a housing crisis and it shouldn’t be the case that houses or apartments be left vacant in areas of housing demand for a period of time,” he said. 

Varadkar believes that it is not going to be the ultimate solution to the housing crisis but instead will run in tandem with other measures.

“It’s legislated for, it’s coming in and we’ll have to see how it works.

“I’ve decided to start the rate at three times the local property tax, that’s the charge. But we’re open to increasing it in future, we’ll see how it works.

“I don’t think that it’s the panacea that’s going to solve the housing crisis but I do think it can make a contribution. It is about really tipping people, who have a vacant home or apartment away from leaving it vacant and encouraging them to rent it out, or to sell it as the case,” he added. 

IMG_5415 Taoiseach Leo Varadkar meets Bláithín the Giraffe on a visit to Fota Wildlife Park today. Niall O'Connor / The Journal Niall O'Connor / The Journal / The Journal

Modular homes

Meanwhile when questioned about failure of the so-called rapid build programme to provide modular homes for Ukrainian refugees he said that the structures take longer to build than people think.

Just 68 modular homes have been provided out of a proposed 700. The Taoiseach said “hundreds of homes” would be provided in time. 

Varadkar said there were a number of reasons for the failure to meet the target so far including getting access to electricity supply.

“I do think that this could help form part of the general issues we have are part of the wider solution when it comes to housing supply.

“But I do know from experience when it does come to modular homes or modular buildings, they’re never as quick to build as people think, think. And they’re not particularly cheap, either. But they are definitely part of the solution,” he added.  

The Taoiseach said that the placing of Ukrainian refugees in tents at the Electric Picnic site would last for six weeks. 

He said: “There will be times when we need to use tents – not during the winter.

“Nobody wants to have to do it but the truth is, we have a huge number of people arriving in the country from Ukraine and from other parts of the world and we have responsibilities to provide them a shelter.

“Tents are not the solution that we want but on occasion they have been used and may have to be used again,” he added.  

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    Mute Rob Munnelly
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:08 PM

    This might be the poorest informed article I’ve read on an Apple release in a while.

    1) Doubling the ram is something just “does” in its phones, almost year on year.

    2) 2GB of ram wasn’t a surprise, it was widely speculated and assumed that would be the case.

    3) Extra ram, on iOS, doesn’t really affect how apps run in the background; it allows larger apps to run more processes in the foreground. That means better graphics in a game because it can load more triangles / drawing processes etc.

    4) Cramming 4gb of ram into something with a mobile chip doesn’t make it as powerful as a laptop, it just has as much ram as one. A lot of these things still run on really crappy processors, and Android is a one-for-all operating system – it’s not built to get the most out of any 1 combination of processor make / speed / model, combined with a ram / speed / make / model. So you can’t really compare them based on the headline number of a single part of it.

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    Mute Byyys
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    Sep 17th 2015, 7:16 PM

    Apple also launched it’s first Android APP called ‘Move to iOS’ yesterday on Google Play as part of the iOS 9 launch…. It got blasted with over 8 thousand 1 star reviews (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.movetoios) Most of the reviews are just rants against Apple.

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    Mute John Lawless
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    Sep 17th 2015, 7:24 PM

    I thought Apple Music was the first Apple app released on Android?

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    Mute Byyys
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:15 PM

    John… Aside from Beats Music for Android, which Apple acquired, this is the company’s first Android APP. Apple didn’t announce ‘Move to iOS’ at WWDC 2015. Instead, the APP was quietly listed on Apple’s What’s new in iOS page the same day.

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    Mute john
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:22 PM

    My vodafone smart ultra 6 has 2gb Ram and lots of other stuff the iphone 6s has and it only cost me €170!! The only thing it doesnt have is the apple logo on the back :( I’ll just have to live with not being cool!

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    Mute Brendan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:54 PM

    Funny enough when I see someone flashing the apple logo on their phone or laptop/tablet I just think knob!!!

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    Mute Paul Lanigan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 11:29 PM

    boulder on your shoulder Brendan

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    Mute Carlin Ite
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    Sep 18th 2015, 7:52 AM

    I have a MacBook Pro. I will never use a windows laptop again.

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    Mute Jonny Lennon
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:04 PM

    The Journal.. Sponsored by Apple!!!

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    Mute Anon Ymous
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    Sep 18th 2015, 12:46 AM

    I updated my iPhone 5 to iOS9 today. Purely by chance I discovered that, with this new update, it automatically starts your 3 month free trial with Apple Music and – in the small print – after the 3 month trial is up, Apple will start charging your account. I wouldn’t have known this only a friend and I were chatting about Apple Music this evening and I had a quick look at it. I have never signed up for the free trial so am really Annoyed by it.

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    Mute Sean 
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    Sep 18th 2015, 3:29 PM

    Well it hasn’t opted me in on any of my devices not any of my friends I have checked with so you must just be unlucky

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    Mute Jim Rodgers
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    Sep 19th 2015, 12:57 PM

    Surely you seen this nugget of information in the 400 pages of terms and conditions that you read before agreeing to iOS9 ;-)

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    Mute Seamus McSpud
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:30 PM

    During testing of iOS9 it was discovered that there is an issue for users who use custom Access Point Names (APN) to access their corporate networks.
    This could affect some customers using Vodafone Office Access, Vodafone Data Control or customers who have custom-built APNs.
    The impact it may have is that if a user upgrades to iOS9 they may lose complete data connectivity.

    As a precaution we strongly recommend that any users who use custom APNs, Vodafone Office Access or Vodafone Data Control do not upgrade to iOS9, until further notice. We understand that Apple are working on a fix.

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