Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The proposal from the Labour Party was to change the basis on which stamp duty was computed. One would not pay the full rate. Instead, one would only pay the higher rates in respect of those parts of the property that were within the higher bands. The position was that one would pay the full amount on a property costing €400,000. The Labour Party brought forward a proposal which would have exempted the first €317,500. One would then have paid extra rates as one went through the bands, resulting in a reduction in stamp duty take. This was a surprising proposal from a socialist party which talks about increasing taxes on capital rather than labour.

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