Mr. Ronan Lyons:

In speaking about taking yet more money from the pockets of ordinary householders, I understand the motivation behind the point. There is a gap between Government spending and receipts. I would like to close that gap as fairly as possible and going after wealth is part of the solution. Two thirds of wealth in Ireland is in real estate, with the bulk of it in land. A site value tax would be much more progressive than another increase in income tax, as the increase in income tax would eat away at tax credits. One cannot hide a house in Switzerland and if a person owns a large house in Ireland, it will fall under a site value tax. The most valuable sites in Ireland are still worth up to €10 million per acre, so we should get some of that publicly created value back into public hands.