Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, I'm going to start moving things to wrapping up, Mr. Cowen, after which then I'll invite the two leads from today. If I can just clear up with you just one question and then deal with two matters. Mr. Cowen, if I could ask you in regard to, it's in your own opening statement, I think it's in paragraph 301 of your statement you say, "Broadening the tax base, creating new sources of revenue and cutting back Government spending were essential features of a budgetary policy." And then over the years leading up to the crisis - this is the question I'm putting to you, so over the years leading up to the crisis, a high and increasing reliance was placed upon transactional tax revenue, such as stamp duty. To what extent do you attribute this to the problem that the Government faced in coming into the years in which you had to restrict Government expenditure and broaden the tax base?