Mr. Frank Flannery:

That is correct. If the Government is devising something around this scheme, I am sure it will state that once the aeroplane lands in a country or once a person enters a country that is regarded as being day one. It is on the second and third day where this might give some relief as currently devised. Perhaps in that context it is not such a fundamental change. If people in question are being asked to pony up an additional €15 million over ten years, of which €6 million will come in the first year, human nature being what it is, there has to be some incentive for them to do this. Otherwise, why write the cheque, because it is not small?

I agree that this would all be done and discussed very carefully by the Department of Finance, the Government and in the debates in the House on the finance Bill. I do not disagree with the Deputy; rather, I suggest there should be a realistic proposition in order that when we sell it, we would have something to sell. We think we can get some significant money out of this population, or at least we should be able to challenge them for it in a very direct way, as I said.

The Deputy employs the concept of the carrot and the stick; in other words, if an offer is made to the group and people do not take it up, there could be a negative impact, whereas if they take up the offer, there will be a positive impact. I just do not know about the practicality of the suggestion, but there is nothing in what we would say that would deny the operation of such an element to it - join and get a benefit and if after a period of years, a person does not join, he or she will begin to suffer the consequences. There would be a positive aspect to the scheme to encourage people to move in this direction. I do not know what the practicalities would be, but the Revenue Commissioners would know the practical consequences. That principle could easily be applied and it bears out the Deputy's argument that there is a fair degree of thought, work and talk to be undertaken about the scheme to make it practical and workable. From our perspective, that practical and workable form should be something we could propose to be able to tell people it would be in their interests to sign up to it. I would not see the notion of somebody coming into the State in the morning and going out in the evening and doing this time and again as part of any new scheme. That was never the intention, but the scheme has not been fully drafted at this stage.