Feargal Quinn (Independent)

They are first-time buyers, the sons of wealthy people. Last week someone in south Dublin, the son of somebody wealthy, bought a house for some millions of euro. If the tax is to be fair it should apply at a certain level and €500,000 would be an acceptable level at which to apply it. I want our taxes to be highly regarded. However, it does not suggest fairness if the child of somebody who is very wealthy can buy a multi-million euro house and pay no tax whatsoever. The Minister may say that such cases are so few and far between that it is not worth having a tax like that. However, we could have had a limit. It could have been specified that the tax would apply at something like €500,000 and that would have been fair.

The other aspect of this, to which Senator O'Toole also referred, is the difficulty of fixing a date. No matter what date the Minister fixes, somebody will lose out. However, last year the Minister said he was not planning to remove this tax. He has now done so. He should take that into account and recognise the needs of those people who lost out, unfairly I believe, because they bought a house at the wrong time.