Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This amendment cuts straight to the faults of the Bill. We are living in an era of a distorted property market and no one really knows the value of property. The value of property should be based on the ability of an individual to buy it. However, there are few buyers because the banks are not lending and no one is in a financial position to purchase property.

Recently, a four-bedroom house in Donegal was sold at auction for ¤30,000. Fianna Fáil put down a parliamentary question on this and other houses around the country which sold at the same value. Will all similar properties in this Donegal town, which is a lucrative and well-developed town, also have to pay ¤90 in a full year on property tax? Will those homeowners be in compliance with the law? Revenue will publish its documentation based on stamp duty figures. That is flawed because these figures are out of date in the current market. There is no stamp duty transaction based on the past ten years in the current market. Property valuations have to be based on what the sale price will be today, not on the stamp duty valuations in the past.

Will owners of such homes be hit with a liability of an interest penalty when they sell the property ten years from now based on the Revenue's assumption of what the valuation could be? We need clarity on this matter. I commend Senator Barrett for tabling this amendment because it cuts to the chase of what this tax is all about. It is a tax on the sale value of a property. However, no one is in a position to sell because none of the banks will provide mortgages to potential buyers.