Mr. Michael Layde:

The survey to which Deputy Deasy refers was designed and intended to quantify the extent of the problem of unfinished housing developments as opposed to collecting the household charge but it was the only database available to us while the household charge issue arose, so it was applied. It did not have the level of accuracy one would seek if one was basing it around the collection of the charge. By contrast, a more recent survey is being used as the basis for local property tax. With foresight, in this case, of the potential use of it - it will be used for other purposes as well - the level of precision that was brought to bear in that instance was of a different order because it was for a different purpose.