Gormley: €200 levy on second homes to go ahead

GREEN leader John Gormley delivered another blow yesterday when announcing that the €200 levy on second homes would go ahead.

The controversial measure was announced in last October’s budget, rather than this week’s, but the subsequent delay had raised hopes that it would be abandoned.

However, speaking in the Dáil yesterday, the Environment Minister announced legislation was almost ready to give effect to the levy.

It means yet another stealth tax on top of the spate of levies and charges introduced in this week’s budget. “Good progress has been made with the drafting of the legislation necessary to underpin the charge, and I expect to be in a position to bring it before the House shortly after Easter,” Mr Gormley said. “The Government remains committed to implementing the charge so as to realise a revenue yield projected at e40 million in the current year.”

The fees will be collected by local authorities and retained by them to help fund their services.

Meanwhile, Mr Gormley also announced the state will stop purchasing carbon credits with immediate effect. The minister said the credits already bought should prove sufficient to meet Kyoto targets. Under Kyoto, Ireland’s carbon emissions are supposed to be kept to 13% above 1990 levels by 2012. Because Ireland was set to exceed that target, the Government set aside a e270m lump sum to purchase “carbon credits” from other countries comfortably within their targets.

About e70m has been spent, with the Government committed to another e24m worth of expenditure. But the economic decline has seen Ireland’s emissions fall, and Mr Gormley has therefore decided not to purchase any additional credits, as he believes they may not be needed. “I have asked the National Treasury Management Agency to put its programme of carbon purchasing on hold.

“Those purchases to which we are already committed should certainly be adequate to meet whatever need is likely to arise in the Kyoto period and any surplus can be carried forward for use after 2012,” he said.

But Mr Gormley warned it would be a mistake to think the hard work on tackling climate change was done. “Under the new EU climate package, we must reduce our emissions by 20% from their 2005 level, to be achieved by 2020; and we will have an even more ambitious target when there is a new global agreement on climate change.”