John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before we move to the next questions, I would like to comment on the vacant site levy. The Minister said the advice to Government was there should be a long lead-in time and a lower rate to avoid a court challenge. To date, that advice has been sustained and there has not been a court challenge. However, I do not believe a court challenge would necessarily have been a bad result, in the sense that it might have brought a greater degree of clarity, because the levy and the lead-in time were conservative in order to avoid a challenge, rather than the outcome of a challenge.