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

I am sure the Minister of State is not deliberately doing this but he has made the point twice that subsection 3 only dealt with the specific situation where the commercial part was in the basement of a two-storey property.

The legislation only allows for two stories, with or without a basement. It states, "subsection (3) shall only apply if the qualifying premises are comprised in the ground floor or basement". So it applies not just to the basement. The Minister of State is giving a false impression, the commercial part can be in the ground floor or basement. The intention is that in the city centre of Limerick, where one has a basement which might be used to offer a service and a retail shop on the ground floor and another floor upstairs, we encourage people to go back into the city and live over the shop on the upper floors. The only way that the shoe shop on the ground floor or the basement area could be refurbished and benefit from this relief is that other expenditure would be incurred as applicable for the upper floors.