Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for continuing to raise this issue. The essence of my point all along has been that the beneficial owners are the people who pay the tax by and large. The VAT and other small taxes are paid directly by the fund. There is a strong withholding tax regime in place for the transfer of funds.

For example, in the Irish REITs market, including Hibernia, IRES and Newgrove, the amount of gross dividend withholding tax paid was €15.3 million in 2021; €13.4 million in 2020; and €12.2 million in 2019. These are very substantial figures that are worthy of mention. Individuals are also liable to tax at their marginal tax rates over and above the withholding tax rate. Corporates are liable to tax at 25%, with credit for dividend withholding tax. Institutional portfolio investors are liable to tax on their REIT dividends at 12.5%, which is the rate generally applicable to trading income.

As I mentioned, the overall issue is housing supply. The €7.2 billion in mortgages issued to private individuals this year is a record and the highest it has been since 2008. The amount of funding going into local authority housing, social housing and approved housing bodies is hugely significant. In the vast majority of cases, the beneficial owners of the new housing being built will be private individuals, local authorities or approved housing bodies and only in a minority of cases will the beneficial owners be these funds.

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