How to stamp out a U-turn? Talk louder, Brian reckons

IF Finance Minister Brian Cowen’s stamp duty reform was on the property market, some slippery estate agent would no doubt describe it as “niche and bijou”.

Which any streetwise punter would know meant small and only capable of appealing to a handful of people.

Considering the noise Fianna Fáil made about the abolition of stamp duty for first-time buyers — it was the only new policy to be revealed in its 150-page election manifesto. The initiative will affect just a few thousand homebuyers this year.