Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

The Minister mentioned that the reason that the seven-year, as opposed to two-year, capital allowance will apply only to an owner-occupier. I believe it should only be seven years is if the Minister feels they would not have a tax liability and would not be able to benefit from seven years. There is a cap of €300,000, however. Obviously, it is not €300,000 of a tax reduction and a person must apply his or her personal tax rate against it and then over seven years. That is the maximum. For somebody doing €50,000 worth of work to a piece of property to bring it to a liveable point, the tax benefit to that individual, paying a 40% tax rate, would be €20,000 and that benefit would be spread over seven years. Why not have an enhanced capital allowance for those individuals as well?

I asked the Minister about commercial premises. Can somebody who builds a commercial premises avail of this scheme after two years to create a residential property upstairs? Does that open up a concern for the Minister that people could now stage their development or works so they are able to do that?

If somebody is building a commercial development in an area that is mapped out, you could nearly decide to get the ground floor sorted and get the shop open and all the rest of it and apply for it next year and get €300,000 of allowable expenditure off your tax bill and finish the upstairs part under the living city initiative. What protections are there to make sure that does not happen because the Minister has got rid of the timeframe completely?