Mr. John Hogan:

I do not think we have a precise timeframe as to how long we expect this to continue. However, on the basis of Revenue's analysis provided to us, it certainly seems robust and substantiated over the next year or two. Obviously, all of these things remain under review. Our colleagues who look at the tax forecasting will be building into the longer term what they consider to be the movement in the commercial property sector. That will be informed by what seem to be quite robust forecasts from the commercial sector as to what its expected outputs will be over the next number of years. We had a very upbeat forecast from Lisney today on the way it sees the market unfolding. Demand for commercial property, particularly in urban areas, seems to be quite strong.

There is some confidence around the ability of this level of activity to continue but obviously we are mindful that we do not want to see a return to a situation where we are overly reliant on transaction based taxes to fund our revenues more generally. The 2% rate was quite low. We are now at a level where we would have been previously. My colleagues can correct me if I am wrong but I think the 6% rate was applicable at an earlier stage of the process.