Mr. Barry Lynch:

I would like to make a point on State-owned land, which affects the housing programme. At present, if one wants to transfer land from one State body to another, the Valuation Office has to value the land and money has to change hands, which in the case of a local authority probably means borrowing money and going through the elected members. It would be preferable if transfers could be facilitated without having to go through that process. In fairness, the Valuation Office has to revalue the entire country and it will have a difficulty in getting around to individual land transactions. It struck me that there might be a case to be made to reduce the VAT rate on construction for age-friendly-type developments from 13.5% to, say, 10%, which might allow that cost to be absorbed without increasing the price to the retail purchaser at the end. Perhaps something could be done within tax policy to achieve that.