Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I pointed out, not increasing thresholds is actually increasing taxes. The Minister might tell me what is the increase in the consumer price index since 2003 and, in other words, in the real value of a gift. Would the Minister not agree that many parents give gifts to their children at a time of crisis for their children, at a time when there are childcare costs or child costs that were unforeseen, or at a time when they want to get their own property and furnish it, and so on? It seems it is an awful lot of bureaucracy if a parent gives €4,000 or €5,000 in that they then have to make a whole lot of tax returns for that extra €2,000 over a lifetime. I am not saying the person would ever reach the threshold and they might never actually have a tax liability because the inheritance tax threshold is €335,000, but it is all of this paperwork for very little merit. Would the Minister not consider increasing it to, say, a modest €5,000 given that would probably only give the real value of what was there in 2003?

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