Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

We need to consider the matter in some detail. The Minister also made several disastrous decisions off his own bat in previous Finance Bills. The first was the 1% stamp duty on contracts for difference. When representatives of the investment houses and brokers contacted the Minister to say they would not have it, the Dublin exchange became a bubble for contract for difference transactions. That bubble has also burst and many high net worth individuals are nursing very significant losses. I understand that most of them can sustain those losses. However, it is still not pleasant to see people with losses estimated to be in excess of €600 million on the market the Minister helped to boost.

In this Bill when the Minister inserted the securitisation of carbon credits again he omitted the 1% stamp duty from those transactions in order to try to boost a flagging stock market. Deputy Mansergh talked about counter-cyclical measures. They were not counter-cyclical measures. They were measures designed to boost an already inflated market and inevitably they mean that when the crunch has come, the crash and difficulties are worse that they might otherwise have been. All of us wanted a soft landing from the high boom. However, the Minister has conspired to produce a much rougher ride particularly for the people at the bottom of the housing market, many of whom unfortunately are left with degrees of negative equity of up to approximately €70,000.

I ask the Minister to give consideration to the Labour Party's proposal and in particular to reconsider today's move regarding hospices. It is not worthy of the not-for-profit voluntary sector and the history of hospices in the country, which every Deputy in the House supports. Most of us have considerable experience of hospices and of fundraising for them.

See this speech in context