Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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199. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will confirm that transaction prices shown on the Residential Property Price Register, which is operated by the Property Services Regulatory Authority, are exclusive of value added tax for new property sales; and if she feels this representation of prices is in keeping with the objectives of the RPPR. [31770/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Residential Property Price Register, available at www.propertypriceregister.ie, is produced by the Property Services Regulatory Authority in accordance with the provisions of Section 86 of the Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011.

The Register contains information on residential properties purchased in Ireland since 1 January 2010, as declared to the Revenue Commissioners for stamp duty purposes. Stamp duty in respect of new properties is paid on the property price exclusive of VAT. Accordingly, the prices given to the Property Services Regulatory Authority by the Revenue Commissioners for new properties are VAT exclusive. The Information Note on the first page of the Residential Property Price Register clearly states that if the property is a new property, the price shown is exclusive of VAT at 13.5%.

The purpose of the Register is to bring transparency to house prices in Ireland. This it clearly does. The Register is a list of property prices and it is not a "property price index". Any user of the Register can clearly identify from the information supplied in the Register where the property price quoted is inclusive or exclusive of VAT. It is important to note that while the Property Services Regulatory Authority may reorder the data provided to it by the Revenue Commissioners for presentation purposes and to enable the data to be intelligently interrogated, the Authority may not alter the information given to it by the Revenue Commissioners.