Wednesday 21 November 2012

Who are we?


We are an apolitical, informal group of individuals from different backgrounds who all happen to agree that Site Value Tax is the correct policy for the Irish Government to pursue. We believe it to be a fairer alternative to the governments proposed Residential Property Tax. We think it will be better for development and business while at the same time discouraging the kind of speculative behaviour by banks and developers that led us into the current economic crisis.



Konrad Dechant

Retired from UCD ( Newman House) .
Researched and co-authored art historical material.
M.Phil and BA (hons) Classical Greek and Biblical Studies.
Long standing Site Value Tax campaigner.


Ethna Dorman CTA. CPO, Chicago Board of Trade, BTh at University of Wales, Lampeter.
 Ethna Dorman is a Mother, Grandmother and Widow. 
In her professional career she worked as a Commodity Trading Advisor and Commodity Pool Operator. She was the first woman to trade on the London Exchange and became Trading Advisor to Comex, New York.
Ethna co-chaired South Ridge Association - an environmental protection group in Princeton, N.Jersey. She chaired the Board of Trustees of Princeton Junior School, Princeton, New Jersey and currently serves on the Board of Governors of John Scottus School in Dublin. Ethna is a Theologian and a life-long student of Philosophy




Eoin Flaherty 
is a second year student studying History and Economics in University College Dublin. He also works part time for CityLearning, a company which provides eLearning compliance training courses for the financial industry. Eoin is an active member of Young Fine Gael, plays hockey for UCD and is currently involved in starting a past pupils association for the alumni of John Scottus School which he attended. He supports site value tax simply because, socially and economically, it makes sense.






Constantin Gurdgiev
Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev is the Head of Research for St. Columbanus AG, and the Adjunct Professor of Finance with Trinity College, Dublin. He serves as the Chairman of the Ireland Russia Business Association, and holds nonexecutive appointments on the Investment Committees of GoldCore, Ltd. (Ireland) and Heinz GAM, LLC (US).
He also lectures in University College Dublin and is a Visiting Professor of Finance with the Russian State University. Dr Gurdgiev is research-active in macroeconomics and finance, as well as economic policy analysis. In the past, he served as the Head of Macroeconomics with the Institute for Business Value, IBM, Director of Research with NCB Stockbrokers, Ltd. and Group Editor and Director of Business & Finance Publications. Born in Moscow, Russia, Dr Gurdgiev was educated in the University of California, Los Angeles, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University and Trinity College, Dublin.  Dr Gurdgiev serves as a Patron of the Phoenix Project. He blogs at true econonomics and tweets as @GTCost




Ronan Lyons MPhil/DPhil at University of Oxford. 
Ronan Lyons is an economist with experience in urban economics, public policy, national competitiveness, property markets and economic development. He is author of the Daft.ie Report and an economic consultant and commentator. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in Oxford University on urban economics and teaches economics to undergraduates at Trinity College, Dublin, and Balliol College, Oxford. He blogs at ronanlyons.com and tweets as @ronanlyons.



Rory Moran BA (Hons) Accounting & Finance 
Rory received his degree from Brighton University in 1999 and after a number of years working and travelling through the Middle East, India and East Asia; he went on to work closely with property developers in Dublin.  A specialist in social media and electronic campaigning, Rory has been fiercely critical of the Governments response to the banking collapse and has been a supporter of Land Tax since the 90’s. Rory tweets as @roryontour






Judy Osborne BA (Econ) Hons., MSc Spatial Planning.
Studying politics at Sheffield University in the late 60's under Professor Bernard Crick and working for ten years as a local history librarian in Brighton, U.K., nurtured in Judy Osborne an interest in local governance that culminated in working with local communities in County Wicklow, Ireland, on the preparation of Local Development Plans. Further work with An Taisce, an MSc in Spatial Planning from DIT and membership of numerous local government committees deepened her experience of development through Ireland’s ‘boom’ era. Judy is currently working in Wicklow as an independent Environmental Planning Consultant and campaigning nationally for responsible development and for Site Value Tax.



Emer O’Siochru BArch MRIAI 
Emer O’Siochru is a registered Architect and a Development and Planning Valuation Surveyor. She is director of EOS Future Design which provides consultancy and develops sustainable buildings, settlements and life support systems. 
Emer has served on the boards of a number of statutory bodies:- Comhar (the National Sustainable Development Partnership), BRAB (the Building Regulations Advisory Board) and Temple Bar Renewal Ltd and of voluntary bodies:- IEN (Irish Environmental NGO Network), the Sustainability Task Force of the RIAI (Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland), the CAI (Consumer Association of Ireland).
Emer is a founder member Feasta: the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability.
Emer blogs at www.smartaxes.org, and tweets as @eosfuturedesign 



James Pike Dip.Arch. (The Polytechnic), FRIAI, RIBA, Architect.
James Pike was a founder partner in Delany Mac Veigh and Pike, which was set up in 1964.  This practice evolved into O’Mahony Pike in 1992.  He has played a major role over more than 40 years in urban planning and housing in Ireland, but has also been involved in major educational, office, retail, hotel and industrial projects, and in projects in the UK and North Africa. He has played a continuing role in the RIAI since the 1960’s culminating in the presidency for 2006 – 2007.  He is currently on the board of the Irish Architecture Foundation and a founding member of the Urban Forum. He has played a major role in several publications including “Dublin City in Crisis”, “New Housing” and “New Housing in Context” and chapters in ‘Fleeing Vesuvius’ published by Feasta, and ‘Dublin’s Future’, edited by Lorcan Sirr. He wrote the pamphlet “Living over the Shop” for Comhar, the Forum for Sustainale Development, has presented papers at many conferences, written articles for the press and been interviewed for the broadcast media. He currently contributes to the many urban design projects in the practice, and a number of architectural projects, and has promoted a number of research projects with the Urban Forum and on sustainability issues with DIT and UCD since the 1980’s.


Dr William Patrick (Paddy) Prendergast
Paddy has been a lecturer in the Dublin Institute of Technology since 1995. He obtained a BSc. in geology & mathematics from NUIG in 1978 and a post-graduate diploma in surveying from the Royal Engineer School of Military Survey in 1983. He previously served as a military officer in Ordnance Survey Ireland throughout the 1980's and early 1990's as part of their senior management team. He has been actively involved in the development of the surveying profession in Ireland via his participation on the council of the Irish Institution of Surveyors (IIS) where he served as President from 2000 to 2002. He also represented Ireland on the European umbrella organisation for national professional associations of surveyors (CLGE) where he also served as President from 1998 to 2001. He received his PhD from Trinity College Dublin in 2005. He currently chairs of the IIS Commission on Land Registration and he also chairs the Inter-Professional Task Force on Property Boundaries. His main academic interest is the implementation of Land Administration Systems and Spatial Data Infrastructures to underpin coherent land management in Ireland.



There are lots more people to be added. If you are one of them, please send Rory at sitevaluetax@gmail.com your profile pic and a description of your qualifications and background as above.


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