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cycle to work scheme provides that bicycles and associated safety equipment provided by employers to employees will be treated as a tax exempt benefit-in-kind, subject to certain conditions being met. One of the benefits envisaged from the scheme was that more people cycling to and from … work would improve health and fitness levels. In addition, the accelerated capital allowances scheme for childcare facilities and fitness centres encourages employers to develop on-site childcare facilities and fitness centres for their employees. The scheme provides accelerated allowances for qualifying buildings or structures over a seven

education and, most critically, it got it right for children. The first five years of a child's life shapes 90% of their development. Our preschool education programme, taken up by 96% of eligible children throughout the country, improves child outcomes, reduces poverty and enhances lifelong employment … right is a legal interpretation of valuation law that could shut down ECCE services. ECCE-only childcare services have traditionally been exempt from commercial rates on the basis they are an educational service, which they are. These are preschool services receiving Government funding of €69 per child

cycle to work scheme and the accelerated capital allowance scheme for child care facilities, but also for fitness centres, which encourages employers to develop fitness centres on site for their employees. Furthermore, the private gym sector already receives tax-based public support through the reduced rate … membership fees. It is estimated that this reduced rate saves private gym operators and gym members around €32 million per year. An exemption from income tax and corporation tax also applies for the income of certain bodies established for the purposes of the promotion of athletic or amateur

have grown up. In that context, it is important to make sure this legislation is primarily for families with, maybe, a two-year exemption period where someone has used it and they have moved on and then it could possibly be extended under the rent-a-room scheme … people have that annex available. I am very conscious that there are a lot of cowboy operators out there who have built unauthorised developments in back gardens and are renting them out. They are not registered with the tenancies board so we have to make sure this

infrastructure can be maximised in the coming five years. This includes the key areas of energy, water and transport on which all future development relies. These sectors were further defined as critical infrastructure in the Accelerating Infrastructure Report and Action Plan published last December. This report sets … reform, and legal reform noted as a core element for accelerating infrastructure across the country. Among other measures, this work will include increasing exemption thresholds for critical infrastructure and reform processes with agencies and regulators, advocating for a new approach to legislation at EU level and creating

have seen a specific example of that working through in Fingal County Council. We need to allow some time for further policy development and implementation. The proposed amendment of the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 to treat noise from a drone as a nuisance may be problematic … think that needs to be looked at within the framework itself. In many jurisdictions, including Ireland, existing environmental protection legislation specifically exempts aircraft noise from local authority regulation. A drone at the moment comes within the definition of "aircraft". Nuisance law often relies on individual complaints and legal

Directive or Regulation will be exposed to administrative penalties. Nobody is suggesting that should be a byball and that SMEs should be therefore exempt from having to comply with the directive, but when we talk about SMEs some people have the idea that we mean Enterprise Ireland companies … talking about companies with two or three employees, even though they may be operating in this area. The e-evidence regulation requires the development of a centralised IT system. No one should know the potential costs of that better than this Government because every time it tries

through Project Tosaigh or forward purchase. Is the Minister going to insist that the €20,000 or so reduction in costs to a developer will be passed on to any AHB or the LDA entering into a forward purchase agreement? Will he clarify how the VAT reduction … example, they are forward funding as opposed to forward purchasing? It simply makes no sense for the State to provide this VAT exemption for apartments currently under construction if the LDA or AHBs, which are funded by the Department, are not benefiting from a very significant reduction

projects. The Planning and Development Act 2024 is a major reform that will speed up housing delivery. Local authorities are updating their development plans to ensure that sufficient and suitable land is zoned. Progress is being made in this regard but has to continue. We have … reduced the VAT rate on apartments from 13.5% to 9% to improve the viability of apartment building, and we introduced a corporation tax exemption for cost-rental income to support delivery and increase viability of cost rental units. We are continuing to make real and tangible progress with

relief for people at this point in time. That is why we need the first €40,000 that people earn to be exempt from USC, providing targeted support for individuals during this cost-of-living crisis. There are many measures, which the Minister will be well familiar with … believe that we should be providing in this budget the €2.5 billion in tax cuts that have been handed out to landlords, developers, investors and others. Those are the priorities of the Government. My priority is looking after ordinary working people. My priority is putting

down the length and breadth of this country. They will help our planning authorities by giving clear direction with regard to subdivision, exemptions, modular homes, and the subdivision of properties into houses and apartments. That is all to be welcomed. I hope that initiative of the Minister … every village and town of derelict, defunct buildings that are lying there for years and years. People were afraid of the planning system. Developers and investors were afraid of it. The Minister of State's initiative will give surety to the planners and people who might

delivering the infrastructure we need to deliver the housing we need. It is in that context that the housing plan will be developed. We have already taken significant measures. We are not waiting for the housing plan to start taking the measures we need to take … have established housing activation offices and increased the powers of the LDA. In the autumn, we will have a clear suite of planning exemptions to free up the time of our planners. We have also established An Coimisiún Pleanála. This week, there was further agreement to minimise

cost. Section 7 of the Critical Infrastructure Bill provides for a disapplication of section 15 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 in specific cases. Simply put, this means now that large infrastructure projects carried out in transport, energy, water and wastewater will … Section 15 places an obligation on public bodies to prioritise climate concerns while carrying out their functions, so the Critical Infrastructure Bill will exempt transport infrastructure, energy systems and water and wastewater projects from climate obligations. It will disapply climate law from some of the biggest potential sources

serviced and identified on maps published by local authorities, but which is not residential property. The RZLT aims to prompt residential development by incentivising landowners to activate existing planning permissions, or to engage with planning authorities to seek planning permission in respect of relevant land. Revenue … first charged on 1 February 2025. Information in respect of the amount of RZLT declared, the number of exemptions claimed, and the total hectares returned, including and excluding exempt land, is published within the October 2025 property taxes report available on the Revenue website: www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/property-taxes/yearly-stats/2025/index.aspx. It shows

taxsaver scheme for commuters. Working patterns have changed and the scheme needs to reflect that. If a satisfactory new model can be developed, the same tax treatment as under the current scheme will apply. Sustainable Aviation Fuel We need to look at all opportunities to decarbonise. Sustainable … outline measures the Government intends to take in that space. Alongside that, I am enhancing the childcare services relief to increase the tax exemption by €5,000 to €20,000 to endeavour to increase supply and to remove the limit on the number of children that

reduction on the sale of new apartments and introducing greater flexibility to the size and mix of apartment developments through the ongoing development of new design standards for apartments. It involves the new rent framework which will help to boost investment in the supply of homes … potential to result in significant cost savings in the range of €88,000 to €160,000 per apartment. Last July, reforms to planning exemptions regulations took effect, giving homeowners the freedom to adapt their homes to changing needs and make decisions in relation to their own living space

Minister of State on that matter to date, particularly regarding backyard dwellings or the equivalent of the 40 sq. m extension planning exemption. We need to go beyond that and allow a wider scale. I am not saying it is the entire solution; it is part … town. It is a serviced site owned by the county council. For many years, the council has failed to get someone in to develop the site. It is ready to go and be built on. Companies around the country produce these modular units. I see the site

childminders are now eligible to register with Tusla. This follows the commencement of legislation on 30 September 2024 which removes the legal exemption of childminders from registration and ensures parents who use Tusla-registered childminders are eligible for subsidies under the national childcare scheme. The National Action Plan … childminding is to enable parents who use childminders to benefit from State subsidies through the national childcare scheme. Childminding-specific regulations were initially developed by a regulation and inspection advisory group, whose stakeholder membership included childminders and Childminding Ireland. The regulations are proportionate and appropriate

incomes. People can defer the payment of the local property tax if they meet certain criteria, but this is not an exemption and the bill eventually has to be paid, with interest. According to the Central Statistics Office, property prices have increased by a national average … Today, it is €445,000. That is the increase over four years. Properties for sale in a new development in Swords went on the market last week. A two-bedroom terraced property costs €485,000 and a three-bedroom semi-detached house is €595,000. That

European Union should not be standing by impassively. The effective shutting down of USAID and the freezing of its significant aid and development budget has put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk, including the lives of many children. To give a few examples, the freeze … frozen and are likely to remain so. Regardless of the outcome of legal challenges, even if the executive order is overturned and the exemptions for lifesaving programmes are carved out, with a Republican Congress in power for the next two years, it is fair to say that these

welcome many of the measures within this Bill, particularly the research and development tax credits. I note that there are provisions here to tighten some of the rules around high net worth individuals making donations, for instance, for sporting purposes. There is an anomaly that exists, almost … someone donates a piece of land to the State, a local authority, a university or certain charities or cultural organisations, they will be exempt from CGT, but if they donate it to a sporting body or certain other cultural organisations, it will be assessed at the notional market

discussion on this Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill. As I stated at the outset, the commencement and implementation of the Planning and Development Act 2024 is a key priority for this Government. While I appreciate some of the concerns that have been raised about the length … what I am trying to do as Minister of State is remove red tape from the planning system by introducing the likes of exemptions, and I know that provisions for modular housing were mentioned by one of the Deputies earlier. It is my understanding that these provisions were

current position, where people can wait up to two years. We welcome that and we see that there has to be development, much more speed and much more urgency put into this. There are concerns, however, with such transparency and public consultation around all this, that … have to have a level of balance brought into all this. That is critical to it. When it comes to environmental impact assessment exemptions, we need to know what those exemptions are, what an exemption means and what the definition of that is. We also need to understand

done. Belfast has a backlog of free bookings for its ORE for another country. Why cannot we have more ports that can develop ORE? Onshore wind facilities are much easier to build but it is not as efficient. It has a longer lifespan, though. We are still … simpler system that gives the regulator, the CRU, the authority to approve projects whether they make sense without the unnecessary barriers or certain exemptions, because we see how that happens. We need a single regulator as the decision maker. We have seen it across planning, for example. When

disapply both the Planning and Development Act of 2000 and the Planning and Development Act of 2024 to designated development carried out under an approval granted under section 29, which itself concentrates decision-making power in the hands of the Minister. Planning consent processes under … climate Act more generally is the legal framework through which we seek to meet our obligations. When Government starts carving out exemptions from climate legislation for fossil fuel infrastructure, it raises serious questions about the credibility of our commitment to our climate goals. If our obligations