Professor Michael McMahon:

They do not affect the headline measure which strips out excess corporate tax. This is the measure that the Department of Finance has moved to using and we have moved to using. As Mr. Barnes laid out, this is the right measure to look exactly at these issues. Is there is a bit more money coming in or not? That is the measure that matters and that is unaffected by what the Deputy is saying. One can still be perfectly right to say these are good policies. It is just that we should not tie them to specifics. If we reverse the situation, would the Deputy feel comfortable if we were to say certain sectors have been badly affected by the global slowdown and, therefore, we would like to constrain what Government can do because these tax revenues are not coming in? That would be a very uncomfortable position and it is not the right position.