Mr. Patrick Davitt:

I had one point. When Senator Boyhan was here, we spoke about the price that tax would add to the end product, which is the building or home at the end. He spoke about the figure of €35,000. Indeed, we have mentioned the figures of €8,000, €10,000 and €15,000 etc. How long is a piece of string? That is where you get to. The value of these properties is the scenario. No matter how you get there or the cost of the tax along the way, you will still be caught by the value of the property at the end of the day. Today it could be one value but next week it could be a completely different value. In six months' time, it could be a completely different value again due to interest rates and all sorts of market movements and everything with it.

People are saying that we can add this to the price of the property at the end of the day but even that is not a possibility. If you get to that situation where you cannot add it on, then the middle person will have to pay for it because the tax has already occurred. Somebody will have already had to pay for it. It is not as simple as adding the price to the product at the end of the day. You hear people talking on the radio. You hear people talking about different scenarios. They say it will only leave the property more expensive. It will, if people can buy it. Yet, with interest rates and everything else, it will probably not leave it more expensive because people cannot buy it. Then you get into a situation where you have the product but no people can afford to buy it. That is when the interventions are going to be needed in a lot more scenarios than what we are even speaking about here.