Dr. Seán Healy:

I do not believe there is any likelihood it would lead to ghettoisation. In my view, people would benefit from whatever services were available and would have to provide the other services that are not available. Where there are different types of houses because some people had more money than others that is another issue. There are other ways of dealing with that, namely, an income or wealth tax or a combination of both on people with higher income who have built the larger homes which are worth more.

What we attempted to do was to link the tax with what has already been done with taxpayers' money. The services provided in a village or town will be of a particular level, with variations from place to place. The smaller the town or village, the more likely it is there will be fewer public services available because less money will have been invested in service provision there. In that context, it would appear to us that a site value tax would be fair. I do not believe it would have any real ghettoisation effect.