Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Final question, Chair, thank you. And, Tánaiste, it relates to the, the issue of stamp duty and the debate that was raging around stamp duty in 2007. And, again, going into that election, all of the main parties competed on how they were going to help first-time buyers deal with the stamp duty issue. And, as you know, up until then there was a threshold of €317,500 and any purchase by a first-time buyer of a home up to that level was exempt and any purchase above that, stamp duty kicked in. And the Labour Party proposed to extend that exemption up to I think it was €450,000, so ... effectively exempting the vast majority of first-time buyers from stamp duty. Like, what was the thinking at that time, given that prices had probably peaked in late 2006 and prices were beginning to fall in the early part of 2007? Had you any concern that creating that incentive might actually push prices back up and put houses further out of reach for first-time buyers?