Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think the Deputy's comparison with building a house in 2004 runs. He built the house in 2004 taking in the circumstances of the time, but nobody subsequently attempted to change those circumstances. When I introduced property tax, it applied only from the effective date onwards. The Deputy is suggesting people who invested and drilled and perhaps made discoveries under a certain licensing and tax regime should be penalised retrospectively. My sense of the law, without being legally qualified, is that this would not run. It would, I think, be illegal or certainly challengeable in court.