Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There might have been logic for it in 2011 or 2012 to inflate what was a punctured property market. However, we are not dealing with a punctured property market at the moment. Many people would feel that in much of the country it is too inflated again. I grant that REITs might provide a more consistent level of quality.

Let us say John and Patricia are investors in a REIT. Patricia lives in Ireland and pays tax on her dividend. John lives in the US and, under an international taxation treaty, can reclaim the tax he pays. There is an advantage to being non-domiciled under these programmes. Has there been any review of the effective rate of tax paid on the dividends of REITs in Ireland as opposed to abroad? We cannot manage if we cannot measure. Is the Department confident that there is no disparity, or has any research been done to deliver confidence that there is no disparity? If there is a difference and the net tax of a foreign investor is lower, and there is a potential distortion that could lead to a loss of tax, would the Minister agree to legislative changes to ensure it no longer exists?