Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

Well, can I just ... hold on. Just for the ... what we did ... the Government of which I was the member, did all this tax cutting in the first three budgets, as we had promised in our election manifesto and our programme for Government in 1997. And in the last two budgets where I was responsible, the ... in the 2003 budget, the tax package ... as it may interest you, the tax and PRSI changes cost €95 million and we had a social welfare package of €530 million. And, in 2004, our tax package cost €296 million and our social welfare package was €630 million. And, interestingly, if you want to know, for the budgets where I was responsible from '97 to 2004, our income tax and PRSI package total came to €5,607 million. And our social welfare package at that period came to €4,507 million, meaning a ratio of about 1.25:1. Funnily enough, for the three budgets previous to my term, '95, '96 and '97, led by the previous Government, the income tax package and social welfare came to €1,171 million as against a social welfare package of only €750 million. So I would certainly say, given that the surpluses that we were generating, and also put the money aside to the ... and the pension reserve fund that our overall taxation and welfare packages and spending packages during my seven years were totally justifiable and I have no hesitation in defending it.