Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No. That is the point I am making. Under the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act, it is not 1% but 6% if the company's shares are mainly made up of commercial property. The problem is that while a REIT or an IREF may satisfy that condition, there is a further condition that has to be satisfied which is that there had to be development of a commercial property. I plead with the Minister to look at this. I know he will not do it in terms of the transaction that is taking place and I acknowledge that there is significant change relating to the 15-year rule. In ten or 15 years' time, when many of these REITs may have satisfied the condition, we may need to look at that again. They should not be allowed a capital gains tax holiday on all gains over 15 years. There has been significant movement in the here and now but this is another issue that should not be applied. This is massive stuff and we have no idea what will happen in the next 12 months before we discuss the next Finance Bill, or how many transactions will have taken place, not to mention the extent of the acquisition of commercial assets at 1% as opposed to 7.5%.

A transaction of this nature is not somebody buying a building on the main street of Letterkenny that cost €200,000 or €300,000. We are talking about billions of euro in some cases.