Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a final question relating to taxation, if I may, which the Minister might or might not choose to answer. If the head of a household decides to move away from his or her home and relocate in another, distant area, whether for home protection reasons or whatever, and lets the home property to a tenant, I would have thought the income from the home property could be set out as revenue contra to the cost of renting another house, but apparently that is not allowed. The person in such a position, therefore, has to bear the brunt of the relocation and the cost of the tenancy and gets no corresponding allowance, which there should be, in my opinion, for his or her home. Rather, the person is penalised.