Mr. Paul Lemass:

Yes. I fully understand the point the Chairman is making. The attraction of empowering the local authority is that it is on the spot and can react immediately. There will be a finite amount of time for the Valuation Office to get to cases. However, I fully accept the point that in the longer term one would not expect to use this facility as a default. I also make the case, on behalf of the Valuation Office, that while it is digesting a major revaluation programme, there are challenges in its pipeline. However, once it is on a steady run rate, with 31 local authorities to be dealt with in a ten-year cycle, or around three or four per year-----