Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

Some of the changes in stamp duty are welcome as somebody has to act to get the property market going again. NAMA has destroyed the property market as it has taken everything out but put nothing back. Before leaving office the Minister should call people from NAMA into his office and tell them to put €2 billion or €3billion of property on the market at fire-sale prices. These may be sold too cheaply but at least that would establish a floor in the property market and people would start again. Currently, everybody is watching prices continually falling and nobody will get into the market because they believe prices will fall further and people are waiting until they hit bottom. Somebody must put a floor on this and the only people with a big enough pool of assets is NAMA.

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