Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

On 3 April 2008, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government told the Irish Planning Institute that he intended to bring in new legislation to tax the windfall gains made by landowners and property developers, that he believed the Attorney General had found a way around the constitutional difficulties with such windfall taxes and that such a measure now had the backing of his Cabinet colleagues. I asked the Taoiseach about it on 8 April and he told me that those provisions would be included in the property services regulatory authority Bill which he said would be taken this session. I was slightly surprised, therefore, to see a reply the Tánaiste gave to my colleague, Deputy Róisín Shortall, last Thursday when she asked him about his plans for this piece of legislation. He said "the Deputy will be aware that the programme for Government does not include provision for the introduction of such a tax and there are no plans at this stage to introduce a tax of this type".

When he spoke to the Irish Planning Institute in Westport, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government said that there would be a windfall tax on landowners and property developers. Is this tax going ahead or not? Which Minister is right because the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has said one thing while the Tánaiste has said the direct opposite.

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