Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It is not that he was against betterment taxes. We were chatting about this at the start. I am not against this Bill. I believe there is real merit in betterment taxes, but one of the points that Mr. Justice Kenny made was that betterment taxes are always passed on to the purchaser of the homes. If I understood his argument correctly, and our colleagues here would know this much better than I do, the primary reason he was not proposing a betterment tax but was proposing a designated site scheme for the acquisition of land at a lower value, was because he felt it was a better way to ensure not only more was built but to also undermine speculation. Most land management experts that I know would argue that this is contrary to Kenny and not in that spirit but it does not mean it is a bad idea. I defer to my learned friends across the way here.