AFTER DECADES of watching Pat Kenny and never once seeing him lose his cool, who knew that simply calling his Dalkey des res a “trophy home” would get him hot under the collar.

In an otherwise numbingly boring interview on Kenny’s new Frontline programme (Monday, RTÉ 1), SIPTU head Jack O’Connor (pictured) suggested that there should be “a reasonable level of tax on second, multiple or trophy homes”.

“What’s a trophy home by the way,” asked Pat. “Eh, a house like yours probably Pat,” said Jack in what he probably thought was a bit of light banter. (Though in fairness, light banter isn’t really his trademark style.)

“I don’t want this kind of crap coming at me,” said Pat glaring stonily at Jack – and now we know that when Pat’s mad he looks a little scary – adding that he built his house in 1988, as if the age of the house somehow excluded it from trophy status. Jack went on to explain that in his view a trophy house is a “large, high profile type of house”.

The entertaining ding-dong did at least put the spotlight on the whole business of classifying “trophy homes” – something that will come sharply into focus if, as Jack hopes, a property tax is ever introduced. Should there be a “built before” criteria, as per Pat’s 1988, though that’s just plain daft, or should it be on market value? Though to see how tricky that would be in a country where there is such a massive divide between rural and urban values, take a scan through the listings on myhome.ie.

There are endless examples of price disparity to chose from. Picking a random comparison we spotted that currently there’s a stunning and very large Georgian house with outbuildings on 64 acres in Tipperary on offer for €1.1 million, or there’s a four-bed semi on Rathfarnham Road for €1.2 million. Do both have the same “trophy” status? And who is to decide?