Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

To return to the practical point, the problem is that if one makes a radical change to stamp duty - in this case, reducing the rate to 1%, or 2% above a high threshold - one can always say that it creates some inequities, looking back. Is that an argument that one can never change anything? Any reduction in tax will feel inequitable to those who paid more previously. It is a difficult issue, and I am sceptical as to whether a new Government will find the financial scope, however desirable it may be, to provide some compensation for those who were unfortunately caught by the change.

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