Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I would like to ask the Minister a straight question. Does he believe it is fair that the exemption limit for first-time buyers is now 40% below the average house price in Dublin? The exemption limit for second-time buyers — many of whom are families trading up from smaller homes — is just 23% of the average house price in the capital. In a tax code that is supposed to be fair, what is the meaning of exemption thresholds that are set so far below the price at which anyone can buy a house? Does the Minister not recognise that those sort of thresholds are unfair because they have been left there for so long without taking account of what has happened in the market in the intervening years?

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