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

The Deputy may be aware that during my response to amendment No. 161, tabled by Deputy Boyd Barrett, I advised that my officials would undertake to report next year on the activities of such structures in the Irish property market. I agreed on Committee Stage of the Finance Bill last year to conduct a report on the impact that REITs and IREFs are having on the residential property market. The limited availability of data from the Revenue Commissioners on IREF returns inhibited the ability to undertake the report this year.

I am advised by the Revenue that as all Irish real estate funds, IREFs, must file accounts with Revenue by 30 January 2019 we will have enough data available at the end of the first quarter of that year to provide a complete picture of the activities of these funds in the Irish market. I want to inform the committee, as I indicated earlier, that work has already started on this report. In particular we are looking at the activities of these funds within our larger cities regarding different forms of property. I want to gather more data on that, then integrate that data into the tax information that would be available at an aggregate level to me at the end of the first quarter of next year. I will present this paper as part of the tax strategy group work, which will be done before next summer. As part of that work, it will be my intention to make available that report.