High rollers and their tax advisers are most unhappy about one change in the Budget. New rules put a £25,000 limit on the amount of capital allowances which any individual taxpayer can claim.

In the past, typically around 10 investors would have got together and put £200,000 each into a £2 million building project. Once the building was in a designated area, such as Temple Bar or the IFSC, the investors benefited from generous tax reliefs, being able to write off 54 per cent of the capital allowances in year one and the remainder in following years.

Now each investor will only be able to benefit from £25,000 in capital allowances. And there is no proposal to change the number of investors in a scheme, which the Revenue, at the moment, usually limits to around 10 to 12 people.

The result? The end of an attractive tax break for the wealthy and some question marks over the likely pace of development in areas such as the South Docks in Dublin.