Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In terms of dealing with the housing issue, I note that the Minister for Finance has suggested he is still considering altering personal taxation and reducing personal taxation. Again, the Governor of the Central Bank suggested that is possible, although we would need to then look at increasing revenues elsewhere. What are Mr. Coffey's views on adjusting personal taxation downwards and where else then can we make up the shortfall on that?

In terms of the level of spending on which we are about to embark for next year, when IFAC appeared before the committee last year, we were told that the fiscal space, as it was announced then before it changed miraculously the day before budget day, was at the upper limits of prudent spending and should not go any higher. Lo and behold, miraculously, it went a good bit higher as €200 million was found the day before the budget and subsequently extra money was found throughout the past year. Where are we at in that regard? Are we still at the upper limits of prudent spending today? What are Mr. Coffey's comments on the additional spending that was done last year, against the advice of the IFAC?

I have one final question on tax expenditures. I know it was addressed. We had a discussion yesterday on tax expenditures and an interesting point was made in terms of the research and development clawback that companies can avail of in terms of tax exemptions. The point was made that had we taken it in, that is money we could potentially have given to research and development in the public universities. The point was also made that we currently rank 25th in the OECD in terms of public research and development. What are Mr. Coffey's views? Is that money well spent? Should we be looking at that research and development tax exemption for companies and perhaps redirecting those funds to public spending? Is that money spent wisely currently?