Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

This is important in terms of the damage it will do to him as Minister for Finance. The defence of that position in his speech is not acceptable to reasonable people who acted in good faith on the advice contained in the statements he made. In the recent Finance Bill, on foot of amendments tabled by the Labour Party, the Minister agreed that abuses of stamp duty were taking place in regard to licensing arrangements, whereby developers and builders were entering into agreements for the purposes of avoiding stamp duty. The Minister introduced amending legislation in the Finance Bill for which he was complimented, but he has not brought it into force, so that all the avoidance mechanisms continue merrily while the couple who might have bought an apartment and need to buy a house because they have a family, are caught in the stamp duty trap.

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