Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

According to the pre-budget outlook, first-time buyers will pay €70 million in stamp duty. Does the Minister know how difficult it is for them to understand how he can endorse in the House a situation in which, one month ago, a deal on land transfers to the amount of approximately €400 million in respect of the Irish Glass Bottle site was made? It involved a share transfer and attracted a 1% stamp duty rate. Had the Minister closed that avoidance mechanism, €30 million would have been paid in stamp duty in a similar fashion as the stamp duty paid by first-time buyers of secondhand houses worth more than €317,000.

In the event of the Irish Glass Bottle site being developed as housing and apartments, which has been indicated, first-time buyers of new homes at that location will pay stamp duty if their homes cost more than €317,000. However, Fianna Fáil's friends in the building and development industry have two mechanisms for avoiding paying their fair share, namely, the licences to build and the transfer of shares.

I have raised this question with the Minister seven times since he entered office. Where is the review, why is it taking so long and what is the Minister afraid of in reforming these avoidance mechanisms? For first-time buyers, it is difficult to understand why they are caught for stamp duty when the big boys are not.

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