Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that section 56 increases commercial stamp duty from 6% to 7.5%. However, the Minister knows the position we put forward prior to the budget. We believe that stamp duty for commercial property should be further increased to 10%. We make those points for several reasons. First, we believe that the €376 million in additional revenue is needed. Probably more important, however, is the concern around what is happening with commercial property. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has provided a heat map which shows areas that are or may be overheating. The only area in the heat map that shows overheating is the commercial property sector. There is also a need for skilled workers to build the homes needed to address the housing crisis the State is facing. An increase in commercial stamp duty would be a way of dampening that sector down and possibly releasing skilled workers into an area where they are needed more, that is, the construction of homes for the families and individuals who need them.

I refer to the additional revenue this would raise. I submitted several amendments which were ruled out of order because of the criteria under which we operate. Those amendments would increase the stamp duty from the proposed rate of 7.5% to 10%. The Minister should keep that under consideration. I have some concerns which I have raised before. Our property bubble and crash were not driven by the market for family homes. They were driven by commercial property, as we know. While there were some domestic properties included in the €74 billion of assets transferred to the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, from the banks, commercial property transactions made up most of that transfer. While I welcome the increase from 6% to 7.5%, I therefore believe the Minister should have gone further and should still consider doing so.

I have a second point, on which I will come back to the Minister on this if that is possible. It concerns the applicable transitional arrangements and how people will be affected, particularly in cases where a delay in receiving certificates from the revenue has prevented them from entering the transitional arrangements. I may correspond with the Minister before Report Stage on how the arrangements put in place in a previous Finance Act may not have captured all the people they were intended to capture. I am referring to those people who entered into agreements to purchase property and who should have been paying the 2% rate rather than the 6% rate. We should make sure that any such anomalies are dealt with on Report Stage if necessary.