Professor John FitzGerald:

We highlighted the fact the Government was most unwisely stimulating the economy through that and a range of measures. We recommended getting rid of mortgage interest relief and taxing mortgage payments in 2001 and again in the 2003 medium-term review. If one looks at the media report in The Irish Times- I think it was after the 2005 medium-term review - they asked us what instruments we would use, and we said we would get rid of all tax reliefs and we would introduce a property tax, and there was a whole range of measures. This happened repeatedly. My fear was that I was seen to be campaigning on this issue.

The ESRI, not just me, has research going back to the 1990s on why property tax is a good idea. There was an article in 1984 on the effect of getting rid of rates on property prices. There is a huge amount of research-----