Mr. Ed Mulhall:

I will say, and I have alluded to this in some of my statements, that I found that particular campaign really frustrating in terms of the issue. I remember going around to the finance briefings of most of the parties during the course of that campaign. I asked George Lee, who did a number of set-up points both for news and programmes, to ask again about the issues around taxation during that campaign. I remember I met him at one of these briefings - I cannot remember which one - and he said, "I just keep getting the same answer back; they won't deal with the issue." To answer the Deputy's question about whether it was rigorous enough, I think it was rigorous. It came up in the issues. It was in the leaders' debate. It was in the set-up packages that were done for "Prime Time". There was specific discussion of the topic but it did not seem to have much impact.