Brian Hayes, Fine Gael leader in the House, accused the Revenue Commissioners of deliberately attempting to misinterpret an Act of the Oireachtas. The Finance Act had been passed as a means of giving some small help to first-time house buyers, he said.
He was glad to hear the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance would meet the commissioners about the guidelines they had issued to financial institutions.
Many institutions were demanding that first-time buyers had a guarantor and a co-lender in the name of a family member or a parent or guardian. This was being interpreted by the Revenue as meaning the first-time buyer was not entitled to full stamp duty relief.
This abominable situation meant they were being hit for bills of up to €15,000. If legislation was needed to clarify this, it should be introduced speedily.
Earlier the leader of the House, Mary O'Rourke, said that owing to the serious nature of the matter, she had contacted the Office of the Taoiseach and had been told they should find it - as would members of the House - strange that Revenue would seek to frustrate Government policy.
Mary Henry (Ind) said it had been suggested to her that the secrecy requirement imposed on victims of institutional abuse who took their cases to the redress board was akin to stratagems that their abusers had used to get them to "shut up".
She supported a Labour amendment to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Amendment) Bill.Dr Henry said it was difficult to see why people should be criminalised for disclosing that their abuse had been formally recognised.
Education and Science Minister Mary Hanafin said the redress system was a confidential process. Were applicants to be permitted to talk about names and institutions, undoubtedly a lot of cases would end up before the courts, compromising the process. The amendment was not pressed.