Relevant Matter
Public policy or programme
Public Policy Area
Agriculture
Period
1 Jan, 2025 to 30 Apr, 2025
Specific Details
Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT)
Intended results
To highlight how Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) remains a huge problem for farmers actively using their land for Agriculture.
That farmers actively working their lands should never have been included in this tax.
That expecting farmers to pay 3% of the value of their land in an annual tax that bears no relation to the income earning potential from their land is wrong.
That active land use for sustainable food production should be exempt from the tax and a robust appeals process put in place so that farmers and landowners can challenge or amend final maps yet to be fully agreed or exempted, if justified
To appeal to Revenue to hold off on any RZLT charges while a farmer is in the process of appealing their inclusion for RZLT.
That the then Minister for Finance Jack Chambers announced in September 2024 that there would be an exemption for landowners in Budget 2025. In order to avail of this one-year exemption, landowners must make an application to their local authority to have their lands re-zoned based on the current economic activity on the land.
That IFA has objected to RZLT being imposed on farmland since it was first announced in 2021 and continues to campaign for a permanent solution that will remove farmland from the scope of RZLT. The exemption announced in last year's Budget is only in place for 2025.
To strongly oppose a possible Government proposal to grant Ministers special powers to override local authorities in rezoning land for housing, this would mark the “death of local democracy.”
That this unprecedented proposal completely disregards the role of elected councillors in shaping their communities. Councillors have spent years working within strict national and regional planning guidelines to develop balanced, well-considered Development Plans. Now, their work risks being cast aside in favour of ministerial diktat.
That if land needs to be rezoned, this should be done via the powers that currently exist in terms of the review of county and city development plans and the reserved functions of the elected councillors rather than by ministerial special powers.
Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity
Francie Gorman IFA President, Bill O'Keeffe IFA Farm Business & Renewables Chair, Robert Malone IFA Senior Policy Executive
Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?)
No
Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign?
No
Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client?
No
Lobbying activity
The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.
Informal communication (2-5)
Designated public officials lobbied
The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them.
As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin
MEP (European Parliament)
Barry Andrews
MEP (European Parliament)
Barry Cowen
MEP (European Parliament)
Billy Kelleher
MEP (European Parliament)
Ciaran Mullooly
MEP (European Parliament)
Cynthia Ní Mhurchú
MEP (European Parliament)
Kathleen Funchion
MEP (European Parliament)
Kieran O'Hanlon
Councillor (Limerick City and County Council)
Luke Ming Flanagan
MEP (European Parliament)
Lynn Boylan
MEP (European Parliament)
Maria Walsh
MEP (European Parliament)
Michael McNamara
MEP (European Parliament)
Nina Carberry
MEP (European Parliament)
Regina Doherty
MEP (European Parliament)
Sean Kelly
MEP (European Parliament)
Victor Boyhan
Senator (Seanad)