Murphy: RZLT will exacerbate housing crisis

A NEW Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) will exacerbate Ireland’s broken housing system, a European election candidate has warned.

The (RZLT) is part of the Government’s ‘Housing for All’ plan, which intends to increase housing supply by encouraging development of lands that have been serviced and zoned wholly or partly for residential use.

It is a 3% charge on land’s market value aimed at increasing housing supply and reducing perceived ‘land hoarding’.

But the RZLT has been widely criticised by farming representatives.

Aontu’s Patrick Murphy, who will stand for Ireland South in the European elections in June said the RZLT will end up further taxing people already in a financial crisis.

‘People, already trapped in a dysfunctional housing crisis, are being further hammered by this unjust tax,’ he said.

‘We’re not allowed to build on our land, people who have lived in the countryside all their lives are being told to move into towns.

People in towns can’t procure housing. It’s a crazy hamster wheel of nonsense which affects everybody.’