Ivana Bacik (Independent)

In my initial contribution I acknowledged that the budgetary changes resulted in many people making savings on stamp duty. As the Minister of State will be aware from his own experience as Minister with responsibility for housing, however, there was more activity in the housing market among first-time buyers, even given the unstable and weak property market we have seen recently, precisely because they did not have any negative equity. I specifically ask the Minister of State to address the point I raised of the impact of the change in stamp duty on first-time buyers. That is something that has been raised with me. Is it not the case that the proposed change will have an impact on those seeking to enter the market for the first time who had not anticipated having to pay stamp duty and are now liable to pay it? I think I am right. That is what people understand to be the case.