Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcomed the commitment that the Minister of State gave us on Committee Stage when I tabled amendments on REITs and funds, particularly with regard to the issue of non-household buyers of which REITs and funds make up a major part. I understood that text would have been provided to us at some stage outlining exactly what was agreed. I ask that such text be provided at some stage just so we know exactly what type of report to expect because we took the commitment that the Minister of State gave us at face value. I have no doubt that the Minister of State will deliver on that commitment, as he has repeated it here this evening.

The issue here is one which I will keep raising until we take action rather than just producing a report. The Minister of State made reference to the fact that there are only three REITs in the country and 2,450 IREFs. Hibernia REIT also has residential property, with approximately 9% of its portfolio made up of such property. Green REIT also has some such property but on a smaller scale. When I talk about non-household buyers, and I make this clear every time, I am not just talking about the REITs but the IREFs as well. The CSO, which we cannot dispute, will provide more granular detail but what they are telling us now is that over 40% - I think the figure is 45% up to July 2016 - of new homes in Dublin were bought by non-household buyers compared to 25% by first-time buyers. The amount of new homes in Dublin is not big anyway. It does not run into the thousands as we all know. There is an issue in terms of supply but the problem is that in a vacuum these funds, which are tax efficient, are going in and grabbing these properties. Revenue is not going to see anything wrong in that. It might see an issue in terms of the deductibles that I mentioned earlier because my understanding is that Revenue is saying that that could not happen but Revenue is not going to see anything wrong because the 3% effective tax rate -----

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