Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I appreciate that. We look forward to seeing the work. I thank the officials for preparing information on it for the committee, including me.

I want to return to Vote 9, which concerns the Office of the Revenue Commissioners and the new tax responsibility that was delegated to it in 2021 under the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act. It relates to the stamp duty of 10% on bulk purchases of ten or more relevant residential housing units. I am referring to vulture funds coming in and buying up housing estates. The Government at the time introduced a stamp duty rate of 10%, which I argued would not have the desired effect. Information that the Department released to me last week shows it has not had the effect of stopping the bulk purchase of residential homes and houses at the expense of first-time buyers or other purchasers. It shows that, since the Government introduced the measure, there have been 1,205 bulk purchases to which the stamp duty applied, with numbers increasing each and every year to the point that 623 were bulk-purchased by the funds last year. Is it not the case that the Department told the Minister this? Why did he not act when the Department made him aware that hundreds of houses were still being purchased by the funds despite the fact that the stamp duty applied?