Property barons seek ministerial stamp of authority -Sindo

[verbatim]

The Sunday Independent is increasing pressure for stamp duty reform. They’re painting a picture of Cowen as the lone figure standing in the way.

[*Property barons seek ministerial stamp of authority * (Property barons seek ministerial stamp of authority - Independent.ie)

Finance Minister Brian Cowen is this weekend facing mounting pressure from within his own party and from a number of its big property developer donators to radically overhaul stamp duty, to re-invigorate the collapsed housing market which they say is in “freefall”.

Mr Cowen has had a series of tough meetings with a number of the big donators from within the construction industry, in recent weeks, who are desperate for the Government to try and bring some life back into a comatosed sector.

Fianna Fail, which has been long linked with some of the country’s top developers like Sean Mulryan, Bernard McNamara, the Bailey Brothers and others who are regular attendees at the FF tent at the Galway Races. The massive profits made by some of these big developers during the property boom led to much criticism of their close ties with FF.

Despite the calls, the word back is that the Tanaiste, who didn’t want to reform stamp duty before being overruled by Bertie Ahern, is currently dismissive of their concerns. His stance is being guided by the advice of senior advisers in the Department of Finance.

[*A Biffo who’s really one of ‘them’, not one of us * (A Biffo who's really one of 'them', not one of us - Independent.ie)

In one fell swoop, the Minister for Finance has received a pay increase of more than 15 per cent, taking his annual salary to €270,000 a year. I do not begrudge it. In fact, I doff my hat to him. I like to hear of people doing well, particularly one of my own, by which I mean a Biffo, a curious breed indeed.

Last week, defending the penal stamp duty regime he presides over, Brian Cowen told me that, since 1997, the take-home pay of the average industrial worker had risen by 42 per cent, or about 4 per cent a year.

Over 10 years, therefore, the average working man has seen his take-home pay increase by almost a quarter of Brian’s one-off salary jump. “This improvement in disposable income has undoubtedly helped people purchase houses,” Cowen told me, referring to the average working man, obviously, not to himself.

He lives modestly enough in a nice house on the outskirts of Tullamore, Co Offaly, although I believe he has a place in Dublin too.

The property market has shuddered to a halt. These days, there is hardly a house selling.

But we will come back to that.

Despite the perceived doom and gloom, not all in the construction sector said that reforming of the stamp duty model is the key to re-igniting the market. A number of the country’s larger developers have said that the market will only pick up again if interest rates drop by half of a per cent.

One leading builder, who is a regular in the FF tent at Ballybrit said: “We’ve been in the business over 20 years, and much of this is coming from people who got in thinking they would make instant fortunes. It’s not all doom and gloom, and the slowdown has had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with stamp duty. This is all down to interest rates.”