John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At an earlier session representatives of the SCSI made the point that the expert group who prepared the Defects in Apartments Report earlier this year highlighted that, "the concept of an industry levy requires careful policy, legal and public scrutiny and should be considered as an option in particular in the context of other similar industry levies under consideration." The expert group report went further and stated that any consideration of a levy should go out to industry and there should be wider discussion about how the levy would work. Has the Department set out for the industry how it expects the levy to work or left that to the industry? Now that we have the space to consider the levy, in the context of reducing the rate of 10% to 5%, will the Department now consult the industry in any way?