Dr. Donal Donovan:

I think it would perhaps be going too far to say the IMF did not notice it. It did have some references to the question of broadening the tax base, which can certainly be interpreted as reducing the dependence on the taxes in question. I think I referred to that in my statement. However, this was not highlighted. This was not given, at least in my view, sufficient emphasis. It was not put up front and centre as a major issue, and I think that was unfortunate. I do not know quite why that was not highlighted. I would have thought that, as a minimum, it would have been appropriate for the IMF to explore the sensitivities of revenues to alternative states of the world, including one in which all or most of the taxation income from the property sector disappeared. That might have sounded greater alarms. However, it did not do so, and I am not quite sure why.