Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I was on the finance committee when these REITs tax breaks were first introduced. I opposed them from the word go although I did not fully understand what they were, but I knew it was a tax break for people investing in property. I thought it was unbelievable at the time and said so. After the property bubble and the crash that we had gone through and the devastating consequences which it wreaked on the entire country, I found it hard to comprehend that the Government planned to introduce new tax breaks for property.

As Deputy Wallace said, the former Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, told us at the time that we needed professional landlords to come in and that this would sort of modernise the property sector and be to the benefit of tenants. As against the dysfunctional property sector that had led to the bubble and the crash, we were going to get a new and improved professional, streamlined property sector. However, that is not what we got. We got another property disaster only a few years after the previous one which produced the worst economic crash in the history of the State. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

As I mentioned on Committee Stage, I find the websites of guys such as Deloitte incredible. I quoted from PwC's website earlier and I will quote from Deloitte's website now. Referring to real estate investment funds and the changes in the Finance Bill 2016, it states not to worry about the changes because "the vast majority of Irish regulated funds continue to be exempt from Irish tax on their income and gains with no Irish tax on payments to non-Irish resident and exempt Irish resident investors". Brilliant. It is brilliant if you are a non-Irish resident or an exempt Irish resident speculator in property because there is no tax on income or gains although income and capital gains in the sector are going through the roof.

Last week Hibernia REIT plc had yet another half yearly report on the absolutely unprecedented increase in its profits. Its half yearly profits were up 118% - you could not make it up - and its rental income was up by 31%. They are creaming it off. I-RES REIT plc is similarly creaming it off and making an absolute fortune from the property chaos that is going on in this country due to the mad decision to give tax breaks to these guys and unload all of this property from the banks via NAMA to them. They must think all their birthdays have come at once. They will walk away without paying any tax and the Minister is now letting them know he will close the door. However, it will be long after the horse has bolted, which is no good to anyone. It is no good closing the door after the horse has bolted but that is what is being proposed. We should close the door as soon as possible to try to recover something from the disastrous policies that have brought us to where we are today.

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