Mr. Patrick Davitt:

I want to mention one point that was raised by Deputies Canney and Michael Healy-Rae. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae talked about when he transferred his farm on to the next generation. Indeed, under section 7.1, when he transfers that farm or a business on to a future generation, the value of that farm will be taken at the value he got it at originally and it will be then put into his estate at the value it is today. If section 7.1 comes into being, it will actually be capital gains tax paid on that when he dies before ever such time as he passes on the property to his next of kin, especially if it is a business.

I will go back to what Deputy Patricia Ryan said. I thank her very much. The Croí Cónaithe scheme is obviously a perfect example of something that can be done with new buildings but, unfortunately, the cost of new houses has led to a situation where the €144, 000 being paid under Croí Cónaithe is not actually any good.

It is being paid too late because builders still have to make the investment and build the properties before such time as Croí Conaithe comes to pass.

As for the other properties the Deputy talked about, there are 22,000 derelict properties in Ireland at present and 9% of our property stock of 2.25 million units is either derelict or vacant. There are 28 million properties in England and the vacancy rate is 0.9%. In Portarlington, Portlaoise or any of the towns across rural Ireland from Maynooth outwards, we can see all of the vacant properties that are there. We have asked the Government to give a grant to people to use them and instead of coming out with a big stick to say we going to charge so much CGT, we should not charge it and we should allow them to sell the properties on to other people. If we do not allow them to sell on the properties, we are going to be looking at these properties closed up forever because they are not going to pay the CGT. That is the one of the most important things we need to do.