FF Minister rejects criticism ‘from Green backbenchers’ over planned land tax delay

A plan to defer the proposed Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) by a further year is “not a cynical ploy before the next election”, Minister of State for Sport Thomas Byrne has said.
The Fianna Fáil TD said he believed “every party” agreed that farmers should not have to pay the tax.
The Irish Times previously reported tensions in the Green Party over the move, with Steven Matthews TD describing the plan to defer the tax as “incredible” and “like hiding food in a famine”.
Minister of State Ossian Smyth on Wednesday said a deferral would not be accepted.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Byrne said he supported Minister for Finance Jack Chambers’ plan to defer the tax, intended to encourage the timely development of serviced land that is zoned residential.
“I don’t think anybody disagrees with the concept that a farmer who doesn’t want houses on their land, is not interested in zoning their land should have to pay a tax on that land which they are working on as farm land, or in some cases that I’m familiar with, literally their farm yard. That’s not something that anybody wants,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“I think the bottom line is that everybody is in agreement with Minister Chambers, that a farmer who was farming land, who was not interested in putting houses on the land or maximising the value of the land, shouldn’t have to pay a tax on it.
“There’s political agreement there that no farmer who is farming their land should have to pay this tax. I don’t think anybody would disagree.”
Speaking later to reporters, Mr Byrne said the differences of opinion were “nothing compared to what has gone on in the past”. He insisted there have been “remarkably few public disagreements” between the Government parties while the Coalition had “worked remarkably well together by any standards”.
The Meath East TD said that when there are issues between the parties, they get resolved by the leaders and “that’s the professional approach we’ve taken”.
Taoiseach Simon Harris has also weighed in support of Mr Chambers, saying active farmers should not be penalised or “wrongly taxed”.