Mr. Patrick Davitt:

There is quite a bit of talk of that, not least because of the grants. At €70,000 now to do up a property, that is a lot of money. The grants are very generous and it is up to us to ensure people will use them, but for them to be able to do so, people have to have the property or be able to buy it.

The Senator is correct; for a lot of older people, it is a great opportunity. Instead of it happening the other way around whereby the young people would build a house, many older parents are now thinking that, because the house is 3,000 sq. ft, 4,000 sq. ft, 2,500 sq. ft. or whatever and is too big for them, they can take something smaller. That, again, is ideal. I looked at a property earlier on Wilton Place, which is not far from here, because an agent knew I was coming to Leinster House. It is a very old apartment, valued at €400,000. A 92-year-old lady owns it and she is in a nursing home at the moment. She thought the property was worth €200,000 but the agent who is selling it has it valued at €400,000. He will probably get that, or perhaps €370,000, €380,000 or something like that, but her capital gains tax on that property when she sells it, which she will have to pay herself, will be in the region of €140,000. She told the agent today that she will not sell the property because she does not want to pay the tax. That might be fair enough and, at the end of the day, it will be sold when she passes on, but that is the scenario. That property is in Dublin and there is approximately €100,000 to be spent on it to bring it up to a reasonable state. It just goes to show the value of properties in Dublin at the moment. They are the types of things we are speaking about.