Mr. John O'Sullivan:

This goes to the heart of the valuation system and what it is all about. The current set of relativities goes back to 1988 and when we do a revaluation across the board in the three rating authorities in Waterford and Dublin city we bring that forward to the situation in this particular case, October 2011. The short answer is that it is because our analysis of the evidence put before us leads us to believe that the rental levels for retail have gone ahead of the rental levels for industrial units in relative terms. It is that simple. Everybody would accept that there has been a big falling-off in rents from the height of the boom down to modern levels but not all have fallen at the same rate. We are asking what was the situation in October 2011 vis-à-vis 1988. It is normal and natural to expect that some sectors will have moved at a different pace from others. That is the simple explanation but even within that there would be many examples where the opposite would be true. One will find examples of retail that has come down in particular areas of Waterford city, I could give the Deputy examples of that, and the industrial sector has gone up.