Mr. Shane Conneely:

Yes, we need serious taxation. We need to change the incentives. There are problems with many of those properties. Often, the title can be unclear or there are access to capital problems because they are owned within a family and the resources are not there to upgrade them. We are not sympathetic to those arguments. These problems are real but having a vacant property beside one's business or home is a cost to one's family and business, whether it is damp coming through the walls, the risk of fire increased insurance rates or the anti-social behaviour that is attracted to vacant properties. All those things affect everybody else in the community and therefore there is an argument for taking over these properties, whether through direct taxation, compulsory purchase orders or compulsory sale orders. Those things should be done.