Legislation dealing with derelict and vacant sites throughout Ireland is to be brought before the Dáil in January next year.

The Green Party said the move comes following the rejection of their amendments to the Government's Planning and Development Bill which would have seen idle development land taxed to incentivise development, and discourage land speculation.

Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan TD said: "The changes to our planning system being introduced by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are all focused on incentivising developers at a time when there are 28,000 un-commenced planning permissions for housing units in the Dublin area and a quarter of a million vacant homes across the country. Dublin city has 60 hectares of vacant land, spread over more than 280 sites that could be used for housing. In addition, there are growing numbers of derelict buildings boarded up in the city centre.

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"We don't need another carrot incentive for developers to boost their profitability – we need a stick to ensure that the ample land out there ready for development is not hoarded for easy profit.

"It is not right that a small three bedroom family home is subject to property tax, yet prime zoned development land, worth millions, is allowed to appreciate in value, purely for profit, and is not taxed in a similar fashion. The Government has dragged its heels on a vacant sites levy. A watered-down version of this levy has been delayed till 2019 and it won't even apply to derelict sites or buildings. This inaction has contributed to the housing and homelessness crisis."

(CD)