Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let's look at your budget submission, then, from 2001, which is in the documentation as well. Where's the reference ... CIF, page 183. Mr. Bacon was before the committee, Mr. Kelleher, and in 2001 we saw that a number of measures designed by Mr. Bacon to calm the rising house prices were reversed by the Government. Stamp duty for investors was cut and the tax on second homes was eliminated and Mr. Bacon said this reversal of policy was too early. And an article in The Irish Timesfrom 6 December 2001 by Colm Keena suggested that the decision on stamp duty was made by the then finance Minister, Charlie McCreevy, against official advice and after intensive lobbying by interested parties. And your budget documentation, on page 183, shows the CIF lobbying for these changes. You said earlier that you were under pressure to ... under pressure to increase output at the time, but is this not an example of the CIF lobbying to change what the Government intended to do in relation to the property sector?