Mr. Joe Keeling:

I will address the question of Brian's salary. The point made in the letter was that if his salary was reduced in line with the new guidelines, he would be paid less. That seemed to come out wrong. If his salary complied with the guidelines, he would be paid less. He is paid more now but if his salary complied with the guidelines, it would be less. That was the point that was made but it was taken up wrongly.

On the betting tax, the thing that stuck me when I came in initially was that I could not understand why the betting tax was so low. We have been pressurising the Government to increase the tax and there would then be no commitment from the Government to reduce the spend enormously. I agree with ccc. I could not understand over the past five or six years why the money should go to racing when it could be got back in betting tax. We have a proposal in front of the Minister to increase the betting tax to 2%, which would reduce all payments coming from the Government. However, that is a matter for the Government.

When I came in initially, I could not understand why the revenue from betting tax was so low. We have been pressurising the Government to increase the tax as there would then be no need for it to reduce the spend enormously. I agree with the Deputy in that regard. We have a proposal in front of the Minister to increase the betting tax to 2%. However, that is a matter for the Government.