Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There might have been men, who for reasons such as psychological damage may be unemployable and therefore would not have the credits. It is important to see if there are cases of men in these circumstances.

Deputy Higgins raised the issue of property taxation and where payment of the amount calculated on the basis of taxation could be deferred. He pointed out that the deferral would compete with negative equity. Some people whose houses are in deep negative equity might never be in a position to pay off the deferred tax and it might never be retrieved. One must think about that.

One may draw a comparison between the size of a loan and contamination of a site, when it comes to site value. If one has contamination on a site, then the site value will be zero minus the cost of removal of the contamination. If one looks at a mortgage that was too big in the first instance on that site, one has a financial contamination of the site and the site has no value. How can one raise a tax on what would otherwise have been a mortgage free site? We have the working poor and the new poor, the people who have too much debt and have temporarily lost their income. There are people who were income rich for a number of years - architects would be a case in point - and they have no income now. Engineers are in the same position. We cannot jump to a conclusion on a reflex type of movement.

It was Mr. McDonnell who said that property is wealth. It is not. If one has borrowed to finance the property, it is not wealth, it is in fact financial destruction.