Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien has said that the Government is planning to introduce a vacant property tax in Budget 2023 which could impact on an estimated 137,000 properties. A vacant designation would be based on data collated by the local property tax. Fergus O’Dowd Fine Gael TD for Louth joined Kieran to discuss what impact a tax would have and why so many houses lay vacant while the country battles through the housing crisis. Listen and subscribe to The Hard Shoulder on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify. Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App. You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.