Ms Josephine Feehily:

My advice to the Minister last summer was that if he wanted Revenue to implement the tax, I needed to know last summer because the logistics would be considerable given that we needed to learn from issues that arose in regard to the household charge. Considering that the Local Government Management Agency was starting from standing still, it has given us a fairly respectable database. I compliment it on that.

My advice was that it was a huge job and that I would need bodies, resources and an early decision. Normally when we engage with the Department of Finance and the Minister on any new development that might be budget sensitive, we have to be very careful that the discussion takes place in the appropriate manner. In this case, we needed to be out and about gathering databases and talking to people. Therefore, I needed a Government decision early.

As I said, our business is to implement policy. My point to several Ministers down the years has been that if the Government gives us clarity early, we will proceed. Since administrators have networks, we would certainly have advised the Minister to the extent that we have knowledge of how property taxes operate in other countries. One of my officials was a member of the Thornhill group so we were represented there. In the end, the drafting of the legislation, under the Government's decision, obviously, is done by my officials.