Mr. Alan Gray:

I think that they are one of the biggest Irish mistakes that happened within our own control. I think that there were a number of issues in relation to property-based tax incentives. One was that they meant that funding was being directed into, effectively, a unproductive part of the economy rather than supporting the internationally-traded sectors and this was of concern to me, not just as the crisis emerged but much earlier. I think it was in the early to mid-1990s, in a book that I wrote that, Senator, you may be aware of because one of your colleagues, Professor McAleese, was one of the contributors. But in my chapter on that book I pointed out, back then, back in I'm not sure if it was 1992 or 1995, that no new taxation measures should be introduced for any activity in the non-traded sectors of the economy. And I pointed out that views ... viewed in isolation many of the tax incentives for certain property and other investment might appear defendable in order to achieve a specific local or other objective, but viewed against the background of the need to encourage tradeable activities, such activities cannot in general be justified. And I purposely went on to say that there should be no further extension to the timescale for them, and I pointed out that whenever a date is set for the cessation of investment-related property tax incentives, strong vested interest groups will emerge to seek an extension of such deadlines. The case will be argued that investments were in the planning stage and it would be inequitable to have the cut-off date. I said, alternatively it could be argued the level invested had not taken place and the timescale should be extended, but I said-----