Mr. Frank McDonald:

Yes, but do not forget that the local authorities had development levies which were very substantial, and still are, so that they could raise huge sums of money themselves. For example, I was astonished to discover recently that if one wanted to convert a Georgian house in Merrion Square from office use to residential use by, say, putting in five flats or one flat per floor, that one would have to pay a development levy to Dublin City Council of €60,000. That is when one is doing something that is clearly in the public interest. It is clearly in the public interest that the Georgian squares of Dublin, on the southside in particular, should be returned to residential use, to the greatest possible extent. Yet the local authority was screwing the developers who were planning to do so.