We will all have to wait until next week. I fully realise that a quite number of people are encountering difficulties due to the tax bills that they have to meet when they inherit the house that they are living in and indeed may have lived in throughout the greater part of their lives. The aftermath of a bereavement is usually a very difficult, stressful period for most people without the additional worry of a taxation problem arising directly from the death. Capital Acquisitions Tax has now become a problem because house prices have increased quite rapidly in most parts of the country, particularly in urban areas, in recent years driven largely by the economic boom. The rate of increase in house prices has been much greater than the consumer price index which is the basis for the indexation of the thresholds that I referred to earlier.
Various agencies monitor developments in the housing market.
The information from those sources is now indicating that the rate of increase is beginning to slow down as the supply of new houses increases. It is fair to say that people living in the greater Dublin have probably suffered most from Capital Acquisitions Tax liabilities consequent to the recent inflation in house prices. But I am sure Senators will be aware that many people in other parts of the country have also been affected. This House had a very useful discussion on Capital Acquisitions Tax during the debate on the Finance Bill earlier in the year. Several Senators addressed the anomalies that can arise because the current regime fails to make allowance for all of the different types of relationships that are now relatively common in this country.