Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has said that REITs and ICAVs simply facilitate collective investment. REITs and ICAVs and the changes to QIFs were set up to make property investment tax free. They were not set up to facilitate collective investment. If one visits any legal website in Ireland or if one reads any of the hundreds of PowerPoint presentations on the issue of REITs, QIFs and ICAVs, one will see that the legal profession is saying unambiguously on its websites that the point of these tax-neutral funds is to avoid paying taxes. The previous Government took a policy decision to exempt investment property in Ireland from tax. That is being copperfastened tonight. One of the many results of this is that we now have a commercial property bubble in Dublin that is bigger than the 2007 commercial property bubble in Dublin. I have a simple question for the Minister of State. The Government has repeatedly said that its position is based on the requirement to avoid double taxation. Will he tell the House where corporation tax is being paid? If he can show us where corporation tax is being paid and show us how the Government's position will avoid a second charge of corporation tax, that is fine. I would accept the point about double taxation in those circumstances. Will the Minister of State show the House how this applies to someone who owns a hotel, an apartment block or some other property that is in an ICAV? They all have trading income. At what point within the ICAV, the QIF or the REIT is corporation tax paid?

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