Tax on land hoarding is fine proposal

OF all the measures mooted by Government to bring down the spiralling cost of housing, the proposal to cap the price of farm land promised to be the most controversial.

When it was originally aired by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern the suggestion bore all the hallmarks of a concept hastily cobbled together without being teased out fully.

Aside altogether from the ticking bomb triggered by having to take on the powerful farming lobby in the campaign for next summer’s local and European elections, the constitutional implications harboured a legal minefield.