Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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78. To ask the Minister for Finance to set out the approximate cost of providing assistance to persons over the age of 70 who wish to trade down to a smaller house by exempting them from stamp duty on the purchase of a new home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33852/15]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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79. To ask the Minister for Finance to outline the approximate cost of providing assistance to persons over the age of 70 who wish to trade down to a smaller house of exempting them from the local property tax on their new home for a period of five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33853/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 78 and 79 together.

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the information returned to them provides no basis for estimating the potential uptake of the scheme proposed by the Deputy. However, for illustrative purposes, Revenue have examined Stamp Duty returns and LPT data for 2014 to identify individuals older than 70 years of age who sold a residential property in 2014 and bought one with a lesser consideration in the same year. The numbers affected are small, and exempting these cases from Stamp Duty and LPT would have cost the Exchequer approximately €0.25 million and €0.1 million respectively based on 2014 returns.

These estimates do not take account of any potential change in behaviour which could occur if such exemptions were to be introduced. Nor have the Revenue Commissioners considered the administrative issues that may need to be addressed to implement such a proposal.