Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Nexus Phase

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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-----right up until 2008. And you're saying because of the three-month blip in house prices in 2001, that that was a concern. Now, given the fact that second-hand houses in Dublin rose by €30,000 between 2001 and 2002 ... but can I put it to you, in 2006 a second-hand house average price was €512,000, compared to in 2001, when this blip happened, of €267,000. How could a three-month blip, where the overall year showed an increase in house prices of quite a substantial amount, be of a major concern when people like the ESRI and others are saying that there is an overheating in the economy and we need to start to not just phase out the property tax reliefs but "Do not extend them", which is what calls were being made at that time from external agencies? And what was your advice? Were you of the view, in 2002, 2004, 2006, that each of these property tax incentives should have been not extended at that point in time?