Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's amendments have been ruled out of order and I do not have the decision on what is in or out of order. That is in line with the rules of debate for finance Bills and that has been the position for as long as I have been here and longer. Even if the Deputy's amendments were in order I could not accept them.

The time period proposed in the Finance Bill to phase out the relief is a reasonable one and there is no necessity to bring forward either the date for the phasing out of the relief or the rate at which the relief is phased out. It is in line with similar phasing-out arrangements for loans used to invest in companies. The reduced period proposed by Deputy Doherty in his amendments is unnecessary and would be unduly harsh on persons currently in receipt of this relief.