Dr. Stephen Kinsella:

One could just do a site value tax. It would be hugely unpopular and it would stop any asset bubble developing in property. It would also generate a huge amount of money.

On a financial transaction tax, I thought it a poor choice when it first came up on my radar. I have since become very aware of the scale of the shadow banking system in Ireland which is absolutely phenomenal. It is on a scale comparable to very few other economies. The gross flows in and out of this economy are comparable to much larger economies. We facilitate the transfer of money in and out of different types of investment fund. This generates very few jobs and the social benefit to us is really low. Therefore my thinking on a financial transaction tax has changed substantially. I think it would be a good thing and view it the same way as I would regard a pollution tax, in that it should be done to discourage a certain type of behaviour. The scale of this sector is eight to 11 times the size of the Irish economy, it is absolutely massive. I would welcome the introduction of such a tax but it would have the down side of being extremely volatile.

I agree with the Deputy that we do need to diversify the economy and scale back, however one never wants to be in the situation where one is scaling back in the middle of crisis. If a State wants to do it, it must be done in a strategic way with policies, it should not be done as part of a crisis. Strategically, the right way to think about it is what form local taxes and site value taxes should take. Do both of those things increase the democratic control felt by the average citizen? They fund local services but most importantly they discourage bubble-type behaviour. These are all positives.