Kerry council coffers down €1m as vacant properties continue to pose challenges
The KerrymanKerry County Council is nearly €1m out of pocket due to derelict and vacant buildings in the county, as property taxes become further centralised.
The council has paid €700,000 to the government for unoccupied properties as part of the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) which was first levied this year, as well as failing to collect their own taxes.
RZLT is a tax levied on properties located on land zoned for residential use by planning authorities, but which are not liable for Local Property Tax. The rate of RZLT is three per cent of market value of the land, which is self-assessed by the landowner, leaving the county liable for a total of €1.85m in tax this year.
During Kerry County Council’s budget meeting, Councillor Jackie Healy-Rae described the policy as an “oversight” in government policy and questioned the incentives encouraged by such a payment.
“For us to be subject to that when we’re the ones actually trying to build,” he said rhetorically.
The council CEO said they had been given “verbal assurances” from the government that the tax would be funded, though no public announcement has been made.
Councillor Norma Moriarty, however, said the council should be subject to the RZLT, just as any other person is, and thus be encouraged to develop residential properties.
The collection of the Derelict Site Levy (DSL) also poses a challenge for the council, with over €278,000 in levies currently outstanding.
The DSL is a tax levied on buildings that the council deems to be neglected or untidy, and are subject to a levy of seven per cent of the land’s market value.
There are currently 49 sites in the county listed as derelict, totalling over €265,000 in 2025, of which only €64,267 has been paid.
Figures for previous years were even worse, in 2022 only €8,008 of the total €187,046 was collected, and in 2023 a mere €979 from €231,592 – that’s a 0.4 per cent collection rate.
While RZLT was first levied this year, the DSL has been controlled by the council since the Derelict Sites Act was introduced in 1990.
However, this year it was announced that the levy would be collected by the central government in 2026, removing the revenue stream from councils.
The government believes the 2,140 sites nationwide that were registered as derelict last year was far lower than the real number. The tax was also generally only collected when the sites were sold.
Cllr Moriarty welcomed the changes to the levy, emphasising the balance of incentives that needs to be struck to solve the problem of dereliction.
“I’d be in favour of as many carrots as possible but sometimes you have to combine carrots with sticks. The new government levy is going to help move people sitting on properties,” said Cllr Moriarty.
“You will do an awful lot of tidying up for seven per cent of the value of the property. That will concentrate minds, and it will definitely make people say ‘no, we need to take action here’.”
“The carrot is the vacant property grants, which means people can’t just turn around and say ‘my hands are tied, I can’t afford to do anything’. The grant mechanisms are there now to help people bring properties back into use.”