Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 17, between lines 47 and 48, to insert the following:

"(i) for the year of assessment 2010 and subsequent years of assessment up to and including the year of assessment 2013 in respect of qualifying interest paid in respect of a qualifying loan taken out on or after 1 January 2003 and before 1 January 2004."

The Minister for Finance was sympathetic to the objective of this amendment. Deputy Noel Ahern, who is not here, was also very supportive. It arises from the fact that people who have reached the sixth year of their mortgage are treated as being in their seventh year and their entitlement to mortgage relief is withdrawn by the Revenue Commissioners, contrary to the normal understanding that there was seven years of relief. The result is that people who have had mortgage relief will be caught out by the 1 January 2004 deadline.

The Minister indicated that those who had mortgage relief would be allowed to continue to have it for a certain period. The amendment provides that those who took out mortgages during 2003 would qualify not for the full amount proposed for those who took out their mortgages in 2004 but for a more curtailed period of relief. House prices in 2003 were escalating rapidly and anomalies have been brought to the attention of Deputies on all sides of the House about how this has caught people who are exposed. There is a degree of support for this on all sides.

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