Unfair tax on couple forced to leave Ireland

I find the €200 charge on second and holiday homes personally unfair. My house is not a second home as it is the only one I own and it is not rented. I bought a house as a first-time buyer only to lose my job nine months later.

With no expectation of work, and with my wife only finding part-time work, we opted to return to Britain. In effect, we have been forced out of Ireland.

With the outrageous stamp duty charge that would be levied if we rented the house, we have had to leave it vacant. Now having left it vacant, the Government has dreamed up a tax on us because we are apparently rich investors.

The savings that have been paying the mortgage for the past year run out in December, at the point where we can rent it without being hammered for tax, but where we’ll now have to pay another raft of charges just to do so.

Can I hope to claim some of this back from a government whose spending is out of control and which seems devoid of leadership?

Charles Edwards

Whopshott Avenue

Horsell

Woking

Surrey GU21 4UE

England