Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I believe he is referring to the Tax Strategy Group papers of 2023 that examine this issue and contain a short note on it. They provide an update on the number of properties in respect of which the 10% stamp duty rate has been applied. As the Deputy has indicated, I have shared with him the latest information I have available across the three years 2021, 2022 and 2023. It is worth pointing to some of the context. I have been examining the data at hand and the various issues involved. The first point to make is that not all the properties concerned are new. The Department, having consulted the Revenue Commissioners, estimates that approximately one third of the properties concerned are second-hand dwellings. In all likelihood, they were already occupied. It is likely in those instances that there was an institutional investor on both sides of the transaction. It is likely that the seller was an institutional investor, and the buyer was obviously an institutional investor; therefore, the 10% stamp duty rate applied. In respect of the proportion of the cases overall, it is not the case that an investor came in to buy homes that would otherwise have been available to individual buyers. They were second-hand and already occupied, not available for first-time purchases.