Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Professor Lane says that at a microeconomic level the property boom could have been countered through reforms that reduced the tax incentives offered to developers and householders. He says that on page 6. Mr. Klaus Regling and Mr. Max Watson report that by 2005, according to the OECD, the cost of tax expenditure had become larger than the remaining income tax receipts. It appears to be extraordinary that the cost of tax expenditure was larger than the remaining income tax receipts. There is obviously a big imbalance. What was going on that had us arrive at a point where those reforms were such that the property boom was not being countered in the way Professor Lane suggests it could have happened?