Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

There is always a property tax, but we have tweaked it and may tweak it again. When the Government last tweaked it, the limit increased to €317,000. We all sympathise with the belief that first-time buyers should not pay stamp duty, but when the Government increased the threshold, we were accused of increasing house prices. Senator O'Toole mentioned a sliding scale. If a house costs €325,000, it seems illogical to pay 3% on all of it. I like to believe that the Minister for Finance will make adjustments.

We have received the commitment of the Construction Industry Federation in Cork that it will introduce changes in respect of staged payments. I announced in the House previously that I hoped the system in Cork would be abolished next year. The CIF is trying to stagger it out and talk about a phased system which would not really start until 2008. We are arguing about the dates rather than about the fact that the system will go, but the sooner it goes, the better.

I take all the points made on housing aid for the elderly. We have given a great deal of money to that scheme, which is doing good work. In fairness, I find it somewhat funny being approached by Senators and Deputies stating they want more money spent on housing aid for the elderly when the counties from which they come would not even have used their essential repair grants, ERG, scheme. There is a great deal of money available under the disabled person's grant, DPG, scheme and the ERG scheme and we want to continue rolling those out.

Senator O'Toole spoke about my remarks during the summer. I spoke then and since to the Department of Finance and we must wait and see whether the Minister for Finance does anything about it. Some of the heat has come out of the market since. I would not be big-headed enough to suggest that my few words helped in that regard, but I was very much getting at speculators rather than investors. People who come into the housing market as investors providing rented accommodation are welcome provided they are in it for the long term and providing good accommodation for the rental market. The persons about whom I was concerned at that time are those who are buying land or houses and merely moving into and out of the market like those buying Aer Lingus shares. Such persons are speculators. They are not in it for the long term. While any person who is in it for the long term may be trying to make money, that is fine if he or she is providing accommodation. I would like to see the laws tweaked and perhaps capital gains tax increased on persons who are short-term players because they are not bringing any added value to the overall issue.

I am not suggesting that everything is perfect. The Government is delivering. On the social and affordable side, the provision this year is €2 billion. Those are significant resources. Often the problem is to get it all spent and get quality and delivery for it, but the resources are being provided.

I accept that there are 43,000 so-called families on the waiting lists, 40% of whom are single persons and some of whom have turned down more than one offer.

On Senator Scanlon's point, when local authorities are building they are supposed to look at the breakdown of those on the waiting list. If 90% of those on the waiting list are single persons——