Mr. John Moran:

The original tax breaks that existed around the IFSC and the designated areas achieved what they were supposed to achieve which was urban rejuvenation. As a firm, we had been involved with the IFSC since its inception. I doubt without the tax benefits, either the capital allowances or the double rent allowances, it would have been successful because it was a location the people simply did not want to go to. Those tax breaks became a little less attractive after 2002 when the cap was brought in on the amount of income that could be used against them so they did not feature as much. I believe that the other array of tax allowances that were provided for holiday villages and all the various other hotels, in particular, led to a proliferation of development in some fairly obscure locations where there was obviously no end user demand. So I think latterly those types of allowances were ineffective and led to overdevelopment. Also, the preponderance of the Government to say at the time that the allowance would be gone at the end of the following year and then suddenly extending it again exacerbated and fuelled developers trying to take advantage of those allowances.