Sir, – I cannot see the changes introduced by Government making any real inroads into the problem and certainly not for at least three years.
Some political commentary has claimed that immediate or retrospective legislation is not possible legally and that there is no precedent.
This is most definitely not the case. About 20 years ago an innovative developer of apartments on the northside of Dublin arranged for the units to be sold within the wrapper of an insurance company investment fund. It was very attractive from a tax and finance angle for investors. The day after it became public the government passed an amendment to the tax code making such an investment immediately unattractive.
Therefore I fail to see why the Government cannot act more decisively and in the interest of Irish citizens rather than in the interest of external funds, even if one of them is the Dutch public service pension fund.
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I can’t imagine the good people of the Netherlands being happy if Irish pension funds were buying up their properties and jacking up rents. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CASSIDY,
Dublin 9.