Mr. Brendan Allen:

I cannot give the Deputy an absolute guarantee on the tax relief because life is like that. Our idea is to try to keep properties in the rental sector and one potential way to do that is by using capital gains tax relief. More importantly, the Deputy mentioned the owners' age profile. When those owners pass on the properties to their children, they will pay capital acquisitions tax at 33%. If they were in another business there would be business relief or dwelling house relief. These are not available. This is one challenge we have. Were capital acquisitions tax relief available, there would be a high probability that the property would stay within the market.

I want to comment on another issue. We have to understand that landlords are not the enemy. We are part of the solution. REITs were brought into the market at a time when we needed them but their time has passed. Now we have an inequitable situation whereby they do not pay tax but our members pay 55% tax. It is grossly unfair.