Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will be seeking to meet the Minister, Deputy Noonan, privately and I will obviously be tabling amendments. The problem is that this is not a technicality in the Finance Bill. The Finance Bill provides for the establishment of a new vehicle called an Irish real estate fund, IREF. It explicitly states that once a commercial property is held for five years there will be no capital gains tax liability. That is an absolutely extraordinary tax break that nobody saw coming. The Bill also explicitly states that commercial property investors, foreign landlords, will pay 20% dividend withholding tax unless they are a pension fund, a life insurance fund or what is know as a collective investment undertaking. Almost 100% of the foreign landlords coming here are either pension funds, life assurance funds or collective investment undertakings. As I said, this is not a technicality in the Finance Bill. The Bill explicitly states that in respect of a property held for five years no capital gains tax will apply and that if landlords are one of a particular class of investors, which all of them are, they will also pay no dividend withholding tax.

See this speech in context