Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)

I thank the Minister for her response. The increase in the cost of developing apartments is complex. We have had multiple interest rate rises and still have not seen the evidence base for these VAT cuts. I would really like to see the publication of the advice from the Department of Finance on this. It is a major transfer of wealth to institutional investors and property developers, with little or no clawback by the State. It is not being combined with use-it-or-lose-it clauses around planning permission or anything to deal with land speculation or land hoarding, which is a big issue in the context of uncommenced apartment developments. This simply will not work. We will be back here again to deal with it, if not next year then in two year's time.

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