Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To explain my view that the Minister has missed my point, while I do not doubt the figures he has supplied, not every apartment is for sale. We have to look at the impact these companies are having on what is available in the market. It is not just what is available but also what is about to become available because these entities are buying properties off the plan. In terms of what is available, they have a big slice of the market. As I said, a REIT is now the biggest landlord in Ireland and these funds are increasing in size.

We need landlords - that is not an issue - but normal companies operating under normal company rules would not be able to do what these REITs are doing because their business model would break. They would go into liquidation and fail because they would not be able to buy apartments for €540,000. Any accountant would tell us that would not add up. The only way the REITs are able to do that, and the reason we see headlines about the purchase price paid for some properties, is through their tax structure. When big boys that can unleash that type of money enter a market in which there is not a huge amount of availability, it will obviously have an effect. The only way these entities can do this is because of the tax structure. They would not be able to do it if they were normal companies. Normal companies registered in Galway, Dublin or wherever else cannot do what REITs are doing as they would be subject to all of the other taxation measures from which REITs are exempt.

As I said, we are moving in the right direction, albeit slowly and painfully, but the Minister is chasing his tail. There is a bigger question here in terms of the types of funds that we have now operating in the property market and the taxation structure that allows them to do what they are doing.