asked the Minister for Finance the number of aliens who purchased land in this country over the past ten years, and the number of acres purchased.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Land Purchased by Aliens.
6.
Since 1947, stamp duty at the rate of 25 per cent. has been payable on purchases of property by non-nationals subject to certain exceptions allowed by law, and records have been kept of cases where payments of duty were made at that rate. Because of the exceptions, the records do not include all purchases of land by non-nationals. They show, however, that the number of cases in which duty was paid at the 25 per cent. rate was 550. Particulars of acreage are not available.
They would all have been available if you had accepted our Bill.
Is it not notorious that the Minister referred in fact only to a fraction of the total purchases? The bulk of the purchases were made through the medium of what we call dummy companies.
Nobody knows, of course.