Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

A 2% stamp duty is charged on most non-life insurance premiums and this is part of the normal stamp duty system. The exceptions are re-insurance, voluntary health insurance, marine, aviation and transit insurance and export credit insurance. This duty was introduced in 1982 and it yielded €90 million in 2006.

It is not possible to distinguish between the different types of insurance business within the yield from the non-life levy. The purpose of the non-life levy is to broaden the stamp duty base while maintaining low direct tax rates.

See this speech in context