Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. One of the differences between New Zealand agriculture and ours is that their land prices are much lower and output is much higher. Do we need, in general, to disincentivise land purchasing by people who do not use it for any purpose? Why does land cost so much in this country? Is there a fiscal privilege bound up in it? Was the Irish land and property fixation not what got us into this mess? To what extent was it fuelled by fiscal privilege? At a time when we are taxing small houses, we are exempting land purchase transactions. There is a reference later in the Bill to ¤3 million worth of land and property being passed on. It is a wider Irish economic problem on which the Minister might reflect in the coming years. It is important to reflect on why we have these high land prices and a land fixation. Did we cause it by putting fiscal privilege into land purchase? If people made losses, my attitude is that it is a real moral hazard. We are doing it in other areas, such as write-downs on mortgages, which the Minister and the personal insolvency body will deal with. Is it time to lose the land fixation?