Senator Aideen Hayden called on Minister Noonan to clear up the confusion and inequalities with the Non Principal Private Residence Tax.

Increasing numbers of people are being penalised for not being able to afford to stay in their family home. Many of these people believe that it is a tax on a second home and they are not liable as they only 'own' one house.

"The people I have in mind are those who bought during the latter days of the Celtic Tiger but who have not been able to avail of the additional benefits Minister Noonan introduced in last year's budget. Among the reasons they cannot benefit is that they have been forced to move from the home they bought and rent a second property themselves elsewhere.

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"This can happen because the property is simply too small for a growing family, because of negative equity or because there is no access to mortgage restructuring or financial leeway from their banks. In other cases they may have had to move to another location for work or for family reasons or they may have simply had to downsize because they lost their job and cannot sell their house. Many of these people are now, in what I call a 'rent to rent' situation, where they are renting out the property they bought and renting another property to live in or are living with other family members.

"However, people in this situation through no choice of their own are now liable to the Non Principal Private Residence (NPPR) charge of €200. These people cannot avail of Mortgage Interest Tax Relief (MITR) on their family home and they get little or no tax relief on the money they themselves are paying in rent. In addition to this they are paying tax on their rental income.

"I call on the Minister to help those who only own one home by allowing tax relief on that home in the same way as other first time homeowners can avail of it."

(CD/GK)