Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am concerned because some of the questions I was going to ask, and which Deputy Lahart asked, are going to inform the workings of the new interdepartmental group. Will we be extending the base to houses that are currently exempt and how will we implement that? What will happen in the event of a revaluation or if the decision is taken to maintain the freeze? I presume the Minister will have to decide where he sees all this going in terms of yield. If he decides to maintain the current amount being brought in via LPT, how will it fit into the work of the working group?

Mr. Hogan said the interdepartmental group was set up to inform the Minister of various policy options and he stressed maintaining stability. I presume this is to ensure compliance rates do not decrease with increases in the amounts being charged or a variation of bands. It comes back to a political decision for the Minister over how much revenue he wants to raise. Does Mr. Hogan agree that a decision on how much we want to raise would provide the starting point for an interdepartmental working group, and that we would then look at how we could achieve it? The briefing document of the Parliamentary Budget Office considers a number of options, one of which was revaluing and adjusting rates locally to maintain the current LPT yield. If that was to happen, would it not mean those who would potentially pay more will pay less while those who are paying less now will end up having to pay more?

As regards the 0.25% surcharge on properties over €1 million, if the freeze was lifted do we have any estimate of how many properties would fall into that category based on the increase in property values? Mr. Hogan may not have the answer but perhaps he could forward it to us at a later stage. We met Revenue before Christmas and its representatives said there was no consultation with the Department before the stamp duty measure was introduced.

I wonder whether that is correct. Can Mr. Hogan confirm that the Department did not seek any consultation with Revenue or that no discussions of this particular proposal with Revenue took place?