Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will deal very briefly with the taxation situation because it has been mentioned. Real estate investment trusts, REITs, which I mentioned earlier, are companies and are obliged under the legislation to distribute 85% of their earnings every year. A standard 25% withholding tax is levied on that. That is twice the rate of corporation tax which companies pay. Some people believe these companies should be paying corporation tax but, in fact, the investor pays tax at a rate of 25%, which is twice that of corporation tax.

Irish real estate funds, IREFs, are funds rather than limited companies. We changed the rules regarding their tax situation in 2019. As a result, in the 2020 findings of the Revenue Commissioners, it was shown that tax was collected at a rate of 18.5%, which is very close to the standard rate of withholding tax, 25%.

I take on board everything the Senator has said with regard to vacant properties and organisations which have no role in funding projects coming in at the end of the day, when the development is fully built, and gazumping families who wish to purchase the houses they need.