Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

He is a former civil servant. He was the head of the Competition Authority. The reason I asked him to do this job was that he did the original Thornhill report on the possibility of a property tax. The Deputy would be familiar with it. It was published and we discussed it at various points. It was the main piece of policy work on the property tax and it is frequently referenced. Coming into 2015, and now that the property tax is a fixed feature of our tax system, and with a collection rate of 94%, I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at it. There are issues, and I want to get advice on them. Deputy Michael McGrath is raising one issue by way of a Private Members' Bill - the revaluation date that is in the original legislation for 2016 for a new valuation base for 2017.

On the second point the Deputy raised, our provision in the tax area provides for a rolling review of all tax expenditures. Normally, they are all done in-house and with the Revenue Commissioners, but on this occasion, because Dr. Thornhill was involved in the formatting of the policy originally, I asked him to come back and have a look at it.