Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin seeks to delist dozens of churches and parish centres from a new tax

The Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin has made dozens of submissions to the city council seeking to delist as many as 32 churches and parish centres from a new tax that is supposed to spur house-building on vacant land.

The properties on the council’s list include a large number of chapels in the city and suburbs such as the Church of St John the Baptist on Clontarf Road, the Church of St Agnes in Crumlin and Our Lady Queen of Peace on Merrion Road in Dublin 4.

Such properties and 29 other Dublin churches are among hundreds of sites designated for inclusion in the Residential Zoned Land Tax in draft maps that the city council and other local authorities published in November.

The Government has been aiming to discourage land hoarding by imposing the new tax on property owners for unused land as it seeks solutions to the worsening housing crisis.

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The 3 per cent tax, coming into force from next year on the market value of a property, will be levied on sites that remain idle despite being zoned for housing and supplied with services such as water.

Owners were given an opportunity to make submissions to their local authority challenging the listings on the draft maps if they felt their property was erroneously included.

A series of submissions to Dublin City Council from the archdiocese show it has pushed back strongly against the tax being imposed on its properties, saying in each case that “the land is currently used as a church providing a social and community use”.

Citing laws on land use in residential-zoned land tax maps, the submissions said the properties did not meet the criteria for the new tax.

“In the case of the subject property, it is reasonable to consider that the land is required for social and community use,” it said.

The submissions were made by the Laurence O’Toole Diocesan Trust, an archdiocese holding company that owns property in trust on behalf of parishes.

A spokesman for the archdiocese acknowledged the 32 submissions were made to the city council and another two to Fingal County Council after two church properties in north Co Dublin were listed.

What properties?

The spokesman had no comment on the work carried out by the two councils when listing church properties for the tax. Neither was there any comment on whether the trust had calculated an estimate of the likely tax liability in the event that its submissions were refused.

Chapel properties listed by the city council include: St. Matthew’s Church and Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Ballyfermot; Church of the Holy Name in Beechwood Avenue, Ranelagh; St Joseph’s Church on Berkeley Road; and Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Chapelizod.

Others include: Our Lady of Dolours Church on the South Circular Road; Church of the Sacred Heart at Stillorgan Road; Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fairview; and the Church of St Nicholas of Myra, Francis Street

Separate submissions were made to the council objecting to inclusion on the list of certain school and university properties.

They include: property at St Declan’s special school, Northumberland Road; certain Dublin City University lands; a plot at Belvedere College; land at Francis Street Christian Brothers School; a schoolyard at Synge Street ancillary to St Paul’s Secondary School; and land at Scoil Íosagaín, Crumlin.