Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will deal with each of the points the Deputy raises with me. To respond to the first point, the most recent information available to me - and I have checked this on the back of concerns he and other Deputies have raised - is that real estate firms in 2017 were net purchasers of 1% of transacted housing stock. They are the figures. That is the effect they are having on housing transactions in Ireland. Firms in this category currently purchase less residential stock than public authorities, so our public authorities, in the desire to deal with the difficulties the Deputy correctly raises, are purchasing more housing stock than these bodies are purchasing.

As for the Deputy's concern about my not being able to calculate the amount of tax that would be paid by these companies, the reason for this is that we have a regime in place, which many other countries have in place and which was put in place to try to increase housing output, and he is asking me to state what these companies would pay in tax if that regime were not in place. Of course, the challenge I have on this point is that it is not at all clear whether these companies would be active in providing new homes if we did not have such a regime in place. That is at the heart of the difficulty the Deputy has raised.

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