Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

It will come as no surprise to the Minister that we strongly oppose this section. On Second Stage I raised a number of reasons we oppose it, not least the fact there is so much deadweight in this proposal. The reality is that the cost to the Exchequer associated with it, which will be in the hundreds of millions next year, is for apartments that have already been built. The Minister speaks about this as a viability issue. Every penny that will be paid out as a tax reduction in relation to this measure next year, and for a good part of the following year at least, will be for apartments currently under construction in the State. As the Minister knows, the fact is that 19,277 apartments are currently under construction and all of these will benefit from this reduction, which is in the region of €20,000. Even if the Minister were to apply it to new apartments that have not commenced, I would still be opposed to it because I still have bigger issues, but at least this would make it more palatable. We spoke about a previous section, with which I also do not agree, that has a different definition of an apartment block. Its definition is ten units as opposed to a minimum of three units in this section. That section was clear that it was for apartments commencing after budget day. The Minister makes the point it is not possible to differentiate and apply two different rates to the sale of a product and that there is a principle in terms of fiscal neutrality that has to be adhered to. I will question some of that in relation to this here, but before I do, this is a huge tax break for developers and I want to ask how many years it will last.