Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 161:

In page 142, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:“Report on tax revenue forgone

60.Within 6 months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall produce a report on the actual or estimated tax revenue forgone, specifically in the area of property investment, as a result of section 110 tax relief on such investments, dating back to investments made since 2012 up to the present and in any future year where the benefit of this tax relief might still accrue.”.

I brought up this issue on Second Stage and have spoken about it quite a few times, as have others. I am sure the Minister is familiar with the concern raised in the amendment about section 110 tax relief which I see as a national scandal in that foreign companies essentially came here to speculate on Irish property having been invited by the Minister's predecessor in 2013.

A total of 65 meetings were held by the Minister and officials with Cerberus, Apollo Global Management, Lone Star, Kennedy Wilson, all those guys who came as bottom feeders to cash in in a distressed property market and who were actively courted by the previous Government to do so. They availed of a tax break, which means that if they maintain their investment for a few years, they will not pay tax on rental income or capital gains, which is quite extraordinary. If people really understood what was going on, they would be shocked. What happens is that, apparently, small items in Finance Bills pass a lot of people by because they do not understand what is going on. For that reason, it is important to shine a light on the issue. When one considers by how much rents have increased since those guys bought into the Irish property market and by how much property prices have increased, the value of their investments has gone through the roof. That is the other side of the coin in dealing with the housing and homelessness crisis that such entities are making obscene profits and will walk away without paying almost any tax. That is something about which they boast when they produce their annual accounts. Every year they record bigger profits than in the previous year and pay negligible amounts of tax which, to my mind, is shameful.

It is equally shameful that when the Minister is asked parliamentary questions by me and others about how much tax is forgone through this tax relief, we cannot get answers, which is beyond extraordinary. We need a detailed report. We need to know how much tax revenue is being forgone to the benefit of the property speculators who have come into the country to profiteer on the back of the housing crisis. Over and above what is in the amendment, even at this stage, given what has happened in the property market and the extraordinary profits being made by the people concerned, any Government interested in fair taxation and generating revenues to perhaps be put into areas such as public housing would be looking at how we could increase the tax paid by such entities and put the revenue into public housing and other areas to address the housing crisis.