Mr. Donal McNally:

Well, a range of options would be given to the Minister in terms of changes to the tax rate ... well, not so much the tax rates but to the bands and the allowances and keeping people out of the tax net and what this would cost. And the Minister would make the decision on the amount of resources he wanted to give. I mean, it wasn't always huge cuts, there was ... there were very substantial cuts. In 1999 I think it was €1.5 billion and in 2003 it was €300 million. And I remember the Minister saying to me that because of the advance publicity, people seemed to more grateful to get the €300 million than they were to get the €1,500 million because of the expectations that there were.