Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I second the amendment. Senator Coffey has made the case quite well. Many dwellings are lying idle in rural Ireland where the landowner has either built a new house or has moved to a different dwelling on the farm. Many of these houses are vacant and without services and the cost of upgrading or doing remedial work to make them habitable would be enormous. This imposes a tax that is not in the spirit of the legislation.