Mr. John Hogan:

I acknowledge that in the context of Thornhill's original assessment of the site value tax there were certainly some merits from an efficiency perspective. That was acknowledged in the report. However, there were several other guiding principles that informed the recommendation to move on a market value basis. They included simplicity, transparency and equity, and to have regard for what the Commission on Taxation had looked at previously. It was also fed by the international experience. I looked at the Thornhill report again in recent days. It was a very comprehensive assessment of all of the issues that fed into the policy choices that were made in 2012 and 2013 concerning the introduction of LPT. All of those fed into the considerations that were put to the Minister at the time and they were very persuasive.