Mr. Tim Cullinan:

We all know where the value of land is. To answer the Deputy's question on properties that are vacant, the regeneration of towns and villages is very important for all of us in rural Ireland. Our concern before we joined the committee meeting, however, on which there was unanimity, was that there should be a derogation to take farmland adjacent to towns and cities out of the taxation system. This is the land farmers are using to produce food day in, day out. What we are looking at is farmers' livelihood. From that point of view, we have a very clear direction.

Another area of concern for us, which was raised earlier, is about proper consultation. It was very disappointing that we had no representation in this review on taxation. If there is one lesson to be learned here, when going through processes such as this in the future, it is very important that all key stakeholders are involved.