Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

-----then we have individual line meetings, so the Government is involved at all stages. The Government under Bertie Ahern used to have a number of ... a series of meetings throughout the year, usually ... often on a Saturday, where we would discuss on the Estimates side as to what we would like to do in terms of public expenditure the following year - everything from social welfare packages, etc. The detail was never decided in those particular meetings. Then later on in the process we ... the decision was made that taxation changes will be discussed with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance. At some of those meetings that we had on the Saturdays, or different other times we had them, Ministers would come forward with various ideas that they might like done in the taxation area and they'd be taken on board and then we'd come ... so there was an ongoing process, so therefore Brian Cowen is correct. It's no different than the process I did.