Madam, - A single-salaried family in south Dublin can't move to a modest four bedroomed home without paying €45,000 in stamp duty. For many, that's a year's salary after tax.
I gritted my teeth a few years ago watching Bertie Ahern voicing a concern to the Dáil that a young family might have difficulty getting on the "property ladder". He failed to mention that his property ladder had €40,000 gaps between the rungs, while the UK ladder was a little easier to climb at about €5,000 per step.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan should use his heart and his head. Punitive stamp duty is a not a property tax - it's a tax on mobility and self-determination, and a perverse imprisonment of the countless young families who now subsist in a small, sub-standard apartment.
- Yours, etc,
RUAIRI BOLAND, Bayview, Killiney, Co Dublin.