Mr. Coil?n O'Reilly:

Yes. The other point to make is that unlike in the private sale of a house, there is no negotiation. Our valuers set the value and that is final. Sometimes the landlord will offer to sell the property to the council for €20,000 more. The council will say that the value is the value. There is no negotiation. That takes many of the steps out of the process. The value is set by a professional valuer and that is final.

With regard to the property, it is on a case-by-case basis. It depends on the level of intervention or work required. Some properties need more than €100,000 worth of work. That does not make economic sense from the point of view of the local authority or the State. If a small amount of work is required, for example something such as upgrading to fire doors in the property, that is easily done, but it is decided on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the value of the property. One of our professional building inspectors will look at the property and give us an estimate of the required works and how much they would cost. Then it becomes a cost-based decision.