Mr. Ian Talbot:

That is fine. At national level, we have not focused particularly on the proposal to have a directly elected Dublin mayor. We have allowed the four main chambers in the Dublin area to have that debate. I do not feel I am sufficiently well briefed to go into that issue.

I would like to return to the issue of a land tax. We feel that the taxation of land is a very efficient way to go about raising tax and broadening the tax base. It is also about the efficient use of land, which ties back into the national planning framework. It is great to see factories in deeply residential areas like Baldoyle Industrial Park, which is close to the Deputy's constituency, being rebuilt and regenerated. As my son goes to school in Kilbarrack, I am aware that it is a hugely residential area. We need to make sure we have the right mix of accessible jobs and accessible public transport in order that people do not have to travel too far. We need to make sure we make the best use of the DART, the Luas lines that are being built and, in due course, the metro north system.

The point I would like to make about how land is taxed is that there is a danger that the property tax will start to look like how the residential property tax looked at the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s. As valuations increased, it became politically difficult and something had to change. We ended up giving up on property tax. It took several years to get something back on the table. We need to consider whether we should look at how a commercial site value tax and a residential site value tax might integrate together. Would such an integrated tax act as a substitute for commercial rates as well? As I said in my presentation, we are concerned that the current local property tax system has stagnated. In 2018 or 2019, a big decision will have to be made on whether to let the existing rules go through or, as I suggested in my presentation, to change the 0.18% and 0.25% bands to make the figures a little more acceptable to ordinary taxpayers who are working hard to pay their bills and do not expect huge increases in these taxes.

We suggest there is still a great deal of work to be done here. We believe the introduction of a land tax would be a better way of taxing than the current system of commercial rates based on the historical valuation system and on the striking of rates by councils. Ultimately, the rate that is struck by a council is a balancing figure after it has added up all the other income it is not getting. In the intervening period, there is an opportunity to increase the valuation in 2019, to adapt the rates or to look at the effective use of the 15% variation system, or all three. I know that last week, for example, Fingal County Council moved back from the full 15% reduction and pulled it back to 10%.

At a time when there is a housing crisis and many other things are going on, often specific to certain areas, there is an opportunity for councillors to realise they are not taking full advantage of a pool of funding that is available. We believe an opportunity exists in that regard. At its core, we would rather see an efficient land tax introduced. Not only would that create a broad base of taxation, but it would also lead to more efficient use of land. We would then be able to return to issues like the density of population in areas where infrastructure has been developed. Our network's view is that in the interests of the efficient use of infrastructure, there needs to be more carefully managed and controlled skyrise development.

I would like to respond to a couple of other questions. As I listened to the commentary of the Nevin Economic Research Institute, I felt there was a lot of stuff we agreed on. We are not particularly keen for the debate on the 9% rate to continue forever and a day. When it was brought in, it was meant to be a timebound thing. We have come through the financial crisis and our own fiscal stability issues. Now we have the Brexit crisis. The strong word coming through from our network - we have four chambers in Dublin and 42 chambers outside Dublin - is that this rate is having a significant impact on regional and rural jobs. The members of our network are asking us to continue to call strongly for the 9% rate to be maintained. I think people recognise that this debate will continue. Perhaps, in due course, we should consider whether the 23% and 13.5% VAT rates are the right rates to have as we seek to get a more balanced and broader tax base. Are those rates competitive from a global perspective? Irish people pay many other taxes. If one wants to buy a car, one has to pay VRT, which rarely gets a mention these days. When other parties and stakeholders look at our excise duties, they say they are too high. We have not really focused on any of that. I think there is a general acceptance that the rate will need to be balanced at some point. It is a question of timing. We do not believe it should happen now.