Don't think that Minister McCreevy has totally abandoned the hard-pressed home buyers. In a little known change to the Finance Act, he is proposing to increase the threshold of stamp duty on mortgages from £20,000 to £200,000. Most of us didn't know that we paid stamp duty on our mortgages as well as on the property in question, but considering that the duty is only one tenth of one per cent, the concession will not be much noticed by buyers.

So much for small mercies.