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

He is another Teachta Dála so he can answer the question.

We have withdrawn some previous amendments on foot of commitments by the Government to look at these things and I note the Government has conceded to producing a report on the vacant homes tax. As far as I am concerned, this is part of an array, to use PwC's term, of things that we need to know more information about, for example, what the impact and cost, or benefit for that matter, is to the people of this country. This area is not all of the problem but it is a significant part of the problem.

The percentages the Minister of State quotes are slightly misleading because the question is how much property is actually moving at any point in time, and how much of the available property is being grabbed, and the Minister of State also concentrated on particular areas. We see that the combined impact of these entities, along with some of the other entities that are buying up large blocks of property from the banks or from NAMA, is having a very distorting, damaging and adverse effect on the property market. More important than the markets are the people who need housing and accommodation. We need to know what commitments the Government is making to produce a report that will tell us what the impact is on the property sector, and in regard to the taxes paid and the taxes foregone on the various tax breaks that have been given to these entities.

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