Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

It is essential that any analysis of the section 23 relief consider its economic impact and spell out the various professions of those who have purchased section 23 properties. One will find that they are not major, medium or even small-time developers but ordinary working men and women in the public sector, as well as those who had the money to be able to purchase such a property. As Senator Cassidy has stated repeatedly in this House, many such persons are now caught in a debt trap. While they were able to pay the interest on these properties heretofore, they are now being loaded with the principal sum after a period of four or five years because many of them were bought between 2005 and 2007.