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

I appreciate that. The scheme is being expanded in two ways - geographic location and qualifying criteria - which could give rise to loopholes in the scheme. Nobody knows yet if there are loopholes but there will be a lot of wealthy accountants and professionals who will try to find ways around it. A pilot scheme should be narrow to allow us to test the waters, identify loopholes and fix them and then, if need be, we can broaden it out. We have not tested the waters yet, which is my main concern. I have also specific concerns about conversions. The definition of conversion is "into a house of a building or part of a building where the building or, as the case may be, the part of the building has not, immediately prior to the conversion, been in use as a dwelling". It is clear that this applies to houses that are unoccupied at present, which are in the designated areas and which, immediately prior to the conversion work, were not used as dwellings.

What do the words "immediately prior to the conversion" mean? This measure, which is designed to bring people back into city centres, is extremely attractive. Let us take the case of a person who anticipates having a large tax liability for the next ten years and wishes to refurbish a house in the designated area of Dublin city centre. If the person's entire tax liability will be written off under the scheme, for how long must he or she move out of his or her home before the criterion that the house must not have been in use as a dwelling immediately prior to the conversion has been satisfied?