Tax breaks for developers remain under consideration by the Government as an incentive to build more apartments, particularly in Dublin, Minister for Housing James Browne has said.
This is despite a warning by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe against a return to the kind of tax incentives he said had done “such harm” to the Irish economy during the Celtic Tiger years.
“I know the Minister for Finance has very real concerns for historical reasons, but there’s a menu of options there that we have to look at to see how we get apartments in Dublin city in particular viable again. They’re clearly not viable. People aren’t building them,” Mr Browne told The Irish Times.
“From my perspective, I think all options have to be on the table. If a taxation option is one of those, I think at least it does need to be examined.
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“I think all options have to be on the table to see how we get sufficient interest from finance into building these apartments, because at the moment, they’re not being built.”
Mr Browne was speaking in Beijing where he was representing the Government for St Patrick’s Day at the end of a visit to China that also included engagements in Shanghai and Kong Kong.
He said Hong Kong, in particular, faced similar challenges to Ireland as its construction workforce was ageing and that they were using modern construction methods such as prefabricating almost entire apartments.
“Modern methods of construction can alleviate the need where you have a challenge around a lack of experience, a skilled workforce. But the biggest challenge in Ireland is getting to the point from where someone wants to build a house to actually putting a shovel on the ground. That’s the big delay in Ireland. It is through the planning process, the consultation process, and through the courts,” he said.
The Government has approved the creation of a new Strategic Housing Activation Office to tackle regulatory and other bottlenecks that are holding up construction on sites where planning permission has already been granted. Mr Browne said he had not yet found the person who will head the office, who will lead a team of between eight and 12 people with appropriate expertise and funding but no new statutory powers.
“Persuasion is very important in Ireland because I think there is that element at the moment where different local authorities are doing different things, and different State agencies are doing different things, and we have to ensure that there is that co-ordination,” he said.
