Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Mary White in her comments and general campaign on inheritance tax. It is something about which I spoke previously. In fairness to Senator Mary White, she highlights how effective the Opposition can be in her campaign on the issue. She had a very good meeting on it and has got a great deal of publicity - fair play to her. It is not uniquely a Dublin issue, as it affects people throughout the country, but it has a big impact in Dublin. Generally, the feeling among experts is that we need to increase the threshold and the bands. If one looks at what people used to pay before the changes and what they pay now, some have experienced a tenfold increase on a house that does not have a huge price. Around €400,000 is not the average price, but it is certainly not a crazy price for a house in Dublin. On such a house, inheritance tax has gone from around €4,000 or €5,000 to €30,000 or €40,000. There will either be a substantial change or no change at all because of the way the markets work on things like this. If it were to be done incrementally, people would hold off on transactions. I am hopeful that in the budget there will be a substantial change to inheritance tax. I also thank Senator Keane for mentioning my previous reference to the issue.