Surely some mistake

Monday, April 2, 2007 (subscription required)
...Mr Bruton stood by Fine Gael's plans to made significant cuts to house stamp duty, which could cost the Exchequer €450 million annually.
"Fine Gael makes no apology for seeking a mandate to change this perverse, unfair stealth tax. Fianna Fáil's policy is driven by the developer and the speculator. Ours is driven by the interests of the family; the family that wants to buy a home for the first time; the family that wants to move in to a larger home with growing children. "Fianna Fáil does not want to help these people, but we do."

Saturday, 14th April 2007
FG Stamp duty policy to threaten 1,000s of jobs - Cowen
The Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen T.D. has called Fine Gael’s proposals on stamp duty ‘daft’ and said that the proposals will put thousands of jobs at risk.
“I was the first person to point out how daft the Fine Gael stance is. It is poorly thought through and will disrupt the housing market, put thousands of jobs at risk and threaten the value of everyone's house not just those who are transacting.”

Thursday, 19th April 2007
Fine Gael and Labour publish Protecting the Progress -An Agreed Agenda on Tax and Jobs
A Fairer Stamp Duty Regime
We will introduce a fairer system of stamp duty that helps make housing for all families more affordable. Specifically, we will:
- We will abolish stamp duty for first time buyers up to €450,000;
- We will restructure stamp duty for others buyers as follows:
o No stamp duty up to €100,000
o On the next €350,000 a 5% rate will apply
o On the balance a 9% rate will apply

Thursday, 3 May 2007
Fianna Fáil announces stamp duty proposals.
Fianna Fáil has promised to immediately abolish stamp duty for all first-time buyers .... Speaking at the launch of his party's manifesto, Bertie Ahern has said that Fianna Fáil's proposals for the elimination of stamp duty for first-time buyers will not drive up house prices.

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It all smacks of desperation, and it'll drive up prices. Oh, the picture? That's me in London standing beside a protototype of a house that English Partnerships are building with the aid of Kingspan Century across the water in the UK for €90,000. Now why can't that happen here? Over to you Dick...