Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Is the Minister considering, in the context of the next budget and Finance Act, amending avoidance legislation to cut off what have become two of the more notorious new ways in which very wealthy people can avoid legitimate taxation on very valuable property?

According to the Minister's reply, 1,400 homes have been transferred under section 86, a Charlie McCreevy "special" from the former Minister for Finance in the Finance Act 2000. Given that the exemption per child on house transfers for capital acquisitions purposes is approximately €500,000, does the Minister accept that people who own properties worth many tens of millions of euro are using this loophole to avoid any capital acquisitions tax arising?

I asked the Minister to indicate the value of the 1,400 properties subject to this special arrangement. Why is that information not available? It must be available. Is the Minister or the Revenue Commissioners hiding the information so that we cannot find out about this particularly lucrative form of tax avoidance, which in reality is only available to the very wealthy, given that one must transfer one's property in full to a resident person?

Can the Minister tell me whether a major property deal is going through in this country at the moment which is subject to stamp duty at 9%? His officials must know this from examining the files. People buying a second-hand home are paying stamp duty, yet every builder in town who is involved in multi-million euro transfers of property can avoid the duty. We have seen extraordinary prices in the Ballsbridge area, for example. All those deals are subject to licensing arrangements, as the favoured method, or to the transfer of shares.

Ordinary taxpayers are paying a heavy price in stamp duty, their children are paying capital acquisitions tax when the family home is transferred and yet the Minister is leading a coach and four through the taxation system so that very wealthy individuals can engage in tax avoidance with regard to capital taxes. These are the same people for whom the Minister has a whole regime of special schemes to allow them to avoid income tax.

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