Westport councillor calls for levy on Louisburgh holiday homes

A Westport-based county councillor has called for a €2,000 annual levy on holiday homes in Louisburgh to reduce the number of vacant properties in the area.

Cllr Peter Flynn proposed that owners of houses occupied for less than half the year should pay a levy to fund services in the local electoral area.

Chairing the recent meeting of Mayo County Council’s Housing SPC, Cllr Flynn estimated that over 100 houses in the Louisburgh area were empty when he canvassed the area before the June local election.

According to the latest Census, the town recorded a population of 367 people on Sunday, April 3, 2022.

“And yet, look around the facility and there isn’t a house to be let or to be bought,” Cllr Flynn commented.

Arguing for ‘radical action’ to address the housing shortage in Mayo, Cllr Flynn said a levy in the region of €2,000 would ‘really force people to consider whether they want to continue to hold a house on the west coast for four weeks of the year’.

Between 2016 and 2022, the number of holiday homes in Mayo rose by 23 per cent, from 4,855 to 5,987.

“Something has to be done. It is absolutely criminal what is going on right now,” he added.

Vacant sites are currently subject to an annual levy. However, Mayo County Council collected just €14,000 of the money owed to it from charges imposed on 126 sites in 2023, for which it was owed €709,000. This has led to calls for the council to be allocated more staff to deal with the respective levies.

Cllr Harry Barrett (Independent) said he would ‘go to war’ with Mayo County Council’s Chief Executive, Kevin Kelly, for one extra vacant sites officer for each of Mayo’s five electoral areas.

“Unless we appoint the staff to deal with the dereliction and the vacancy and the rent pressure zones, it’s a waste of time,” said Cllr Barrett.

“I would love Mayo to be the wolf at the door of those who keep their houses derelict and their houses vacant, I want extreme pressure, maximum pressure across the board. We’re fielding calls from distressed people every day of the week.”

Fine Gael councillor Alma Gallagher suggested that the function for collecting vacant site levies should be transferred from local authorities to the Revenue Commissioners.

She said the council should consider increasing the derelict sites levy to 10 per cent and start ‘aggressively’ collecting the levy. The current levy stands at 7 per cent of a property’s market value, with interest accrued at a rate of 1.25 per cent per month for non-payment.

Tom Gilligan, Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Housing, said he would favour the council introducing its own vacant property tax.

Mr Gilligan also suggested mandatory registration of vacant properties and ‘use it or lose it’ legislation mandating that properties be brought into use within a specified timeframe.

“It is known that the most efficient home to deliver is the one that already exists within our vacant stock,” he said.