Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the Deputy's first question, the key factor to where we have ended up in customs and excise duties has been the pre-loading that took place in cigarettes in advance of plain packaging being introduced. As I look into the remainder of this year, the trend that has been established across the first three quarters of this year is likely to continue into the final quarter. This is certainly something I will be mindful of when making future decisions on tobacco. We need to consider the degree to which additional increases will give the kinds of yield we may have got in the past.

With regard to stamp duty on commercial property, the Deputy will be aware that in the first quarter of the year we got off to a little bit of a slow start considering where we were versus the profile, but we were ahead of the previous year. That has improved. As we move into this year, we are still a bit behind, but I am cautiously optimistic that we will deliver at or near our target. It is an incredibly lumpy tax and, if a small number of big commercial property transactions take place in the final quarter, they can have a substantial effect on where we end up in the year. Given the magnitude of the move I made on stamp duty on commercial property, which I do not believe was expected by all, it may have had an effect at the start of this year. I believe we will do okay there.