Stamp duty yielded £194 million during 1996, according to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, and continued to play an important role in shifting some of the burden of tax on wage and salary income to property.

Reducing the levels applied on the transfer of real property including secondhand houses could accelerate an already overheated property market, he told Mr Ivor Callely (FF, Dublin North Central) in a reply to a written question.