Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that and I have no problem with the logic, which is taking the current situation and saying it will make it a bit better. However, the current situation is the result of the past five or six years of massive tax breaks on property. We can see what has happened. We know that the property investors were approached, told that these new vehicles that are tax free have been created and asked to invest in Irish property, and they did. The tax breaks were real. We know that. Money has poured in and we now have a property bubble. Perhaps it was the right thing to do four or five years ago, although I do not think it was, but in doing that and now locking most of it in, we are taking a massive section of our investment property base out of the tax net. The Minister of State should, obviously, feel free to respond. I do not think I need to make the point again and I do not think it will be changed in this amendment. A report examining how investment property was taxed ten years ago, how it is being taxed today and how it will be taxed in the new world would be very useful. My suspicion is that we will see an improvement in the IREF world in terms of today, but a serious disimprovement in terms of five or ten years ago when property companies paid normal taxes.