Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While it is fine keeping the matter under review, the problem is that in the here and now we could bring in millions of euro to the Revenue that would allow the State to do other things or lessen the burden on other measures already introduced. The capital acquisitions tax is made up of two elements, the inheritance tax and the gift tax. A person does not have a choice as to when he or she dies. They die when they die and the inheritance will pass at that stage. I am not convinced that not reducing it further will put people off from bequeathing a house or assets to their kin. While I acknowledge the Minister has moved in a certain direction and it is not the first time it has increased, in recent years it went down to a level that was crazy and should be increased to close to 33% but the thresholds should definitely be reduced.

The Minister talked about the average house price, I am not sure if the average State wide house price is €187,000 - that may be the Dublin average house price. While prices have increased marginally in Dublin, they are still falling in the rest of the State. This is not somebody getting the house, the family home, in which he or she is living. This is somebody getting a house in which he or she is not going to live. If they are living in the family home and the mother passes the family home on to the daughter, they are exempt.

This is about inheriting an additional house or second home. There are legitimate questions as to why we would exempt the full value of the house. My suggestion is to benchmark the tax at that of the average house. There are other categories in which the rate could be reduced also - for example, bequests to nephews and nieces. The rate should also be reduced in the context of subparagraph (c). If these rates were applied today, they would not be likely to cause protests outside on Kildare Street.