Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I support this amendment. The problem is that someone could take out a mortgage on 1 January 2004 and receive a full seven years of relief, because it is based upon when a person takes it out in a particular year. The problem is that somebody who took out a mortgage in 2003 would not get relief for that year. In the interest of fairness, we should consider a seven year period as distinct from seven tax years. It is a subtle but important difference for people who signed mortgages in a year when house prices were increasing at an alarming rate.

See this speech in context