Mr. Patrick Davitt:

They could be commercial or residential sites or they could be used for both. There is a shortage of large commercial buildings in the city centre also. We hope this will make people use their sites to ensure that someone who buys a site will buy it to build on rather than to leave. If someone buys a property and its value goes up by 5% or 10%, only one person is making money. However, if the property is sold to a builder, the builder will build and many people will be able to take advantage of the site. In the event that the sites are brought back into production and being built on, speculators will not buy such sites as are offered for sale as they know there will be a levy where they fail to build or decide to build within a year, depending on the size of the levy. I did a presentation for the Lord Mayor of Dublin some time ago and a builder in attendance recommended the size of the levy should be between 20% and 50%. That is probably a bit high and a great deal more than the Lord Mayor was considering. However, 3% or 5% will automatically mean people will not buy the sites. Builders will get to buy the properties at lower prices.