Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am aware the Acting Chairperson also wants to come in so I will ask my two questions together because we only have approximately seven minutes. My first question is on the surcharge for non-compliance with LPT requirements that was provided for by section 38 of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012. This 10% surcharge is applied against the amount of tax contained in an income tax, corporation tax or capital gains tax return. According to Revenue's tax and duty manual on the local property tax surcharge, an LPT-generated surcharge will not apply where a person has a nil tax liability where income refers to corporation, income and capital gains tax. We know Irish real estate funds, IREFs, are liable for neither corporation nor capital gains taxes. Will the Minister clarify whether there are provisions in place to ensure these funds are not exempt from this surcharge as a result of having no apparent income liability against which it can be levied?

I hope the Minister can clarify another matter relating to exemptions. A piece in Revenue's tax and duty manual states residential properties owned by a charity and newly constructed and unused residential properties are exempt from LPT. I am particularly interested in residential properties owned by a charity. We have often heard about orphan structures, which is an issue I raised with the Minister in the past. Owners of these orphan structures can inappropriately use charitable trust ownership structures. Has any analysis has been done on whether the owners of orphan structures have been able to apply for the exemption? Has the charitable trust ownership structure been used for the exemption of residential properties owned by a charity?