Ms Michelle Murphy:

With regard to incentives or penalties, what is required is careful design to ensure the incentives would not further distort the market. They would have to be designed very carefully. There should be annual reviews if incentives are introduced. There should be a review by this committee or another housing committee annually to ensure incentives have the correct impact. If they are not having the correct impact, one option would be to redesign the scheme. There should be a sunset clause for a minimum of five years. At the same time, there should be a levy on empty homes. We suggest a monthly levy. There should also be a levy on undeveloped land. The Government is to introduce this in 2018 or 2019 to ensure such land is used.