As Mr Charlie McCreevy puts the final touches to next week's Budget, he can be sure of one thing; someone, somewhere will be unhappy with the result. If the Minister needs proof of this, he need look no further than the property sector, where almost every interested party is arguing for change. To make life more difficult, most of the arguments are presented convincingly.

Investors make up the group which is probably most disenchanted with the system as things stand. Struggling with stamp duty of 9 per cent on all second-hand homes bought for investment, they are asking that the Budget deliver two main things next Wednesday: a reduction (or even the elimination) of stamp duty; and the restoration of full mortgage interest relief for investors.

Despite speculation that they are likely to get their wish on the stamp duty front, most property watchers view interest relief as the more pressing of the two issues.

"Mortgage interest relief is more important than stamp duty," says Mr Alan Cooke, chief executive of the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI). "If they think about stamp duty and fail on that, they can throw the hat at it."

Mr Cooke says that investors have reacted to the post-Bacon environment by taking their money elsewhere, to places such as Belfast, Glasgow or Spain, leaving a shortage of rental accommodation in their wake.

The IAVI has presented its arguments to the Minister for Finance through the eyes of cash-strapped tenants rather than perceived "fat cat" landlords, describing how it has become virtually impossible to rent an apartment in Dublin for less than £650 (€825) per month.

As to stamp duty, it says that "the present system reflects poorly on Government". Currently, as the IAVI points out, 11 different levels of stamp duty are applied.

Recognising that the abolition of what Mr Cooke calls "a little imprint at the top corner of a legal document" is unlikely, the IAVI is calling for a new tiering system, whereby investors would pay between 2 and 7 per cent stamp duty, depending on the property price.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with the investors, for obvious reasons, are the estate agents, who have been hard hit by the slowdown in investment activity. Property economist, Ms Marian Finnegan of Sherry FitzGerald, says that she has disagreed with all of the Bacon proposals and predicts that it could take up to a year for investors to again feel comfortable about entering the residential market, regardless of what happens next week.

Concern for jobs is also evident in the home-building industry, says Construction Industry Federation director of housing, Mr Ciaran Ryan. Slowing investment activity means that house starts for the first 10 months of 2001 are down 20 per cent on last year, according to Mr Ryan. He says that this puts up to 20,000 building jobs at risk, as well as having the potential to cause a future crisis in housing supply when demand eventually picks up. Innovative measures must be developed to encourage consumer confidence in the short term, he says, suggesting deferred tax credits for houses bought within a fixed period in 2002.

Like many other commentators, Mr Ryan believes that the market will take care of itself in the long run, perhaps aided by a simple stamp duty system where one rate would apply to all. Mr Liam O'Donnell, chief executive of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV), is also a fan of simplicity, saying that "fiddling around" with the tax system is never a good idea: "Every time you interfere down the river, something else happens further up," he says. "Stamp duty is never going to be the instrument that has the control that the Government would like."

The only party who wasn't attempting to influence Mr McCreevy this week was, curiously enough, the man who was discussed in so many of the other conversations: property economist, Mr Peter Bacon. Mr Bacon declined to comment on next week's Budget when contacted by The Irish Times, saying only that he was not advising the Minister on policy this time round. The effect of his absence remains to be seen.