Mr. Brian Cowen:

You know, there's a misinterpretation on the extension. That related to transitional issues, but I'll deal with that in the reply. Firstly, when I became Minister of Finance, this issue of the impact of property reliefs was brought to my attention, or certainly it's an issue that officials were bringing to my attention in the context of how we could try and deal with accelerating property prices - in some way, try and take demand out of activity, in some way.

As you know ... as you say in your question, there had been previous ... since '85, we've had these ... '85, I think your own Government was in office at the time ... but I ... there were ... there was a good case, from time to time, for some ... for some of these schemes. I mean, I remember in '87, when we came into office, the dereliction and all up along the ... the Liffey, from Heuston right down to the docks, for example. There was ... you know, so the need to bring in urban renewal schemes, you know, had their place, both in large towns and in cities. And, in fact, when I ... the reason why I commissioned the report, to answer the question, is that I wanted a comprehensive assessment as to where we were at with all these schemes. Now, when you say they were due to be ... due to be ... go in '06 anyway, they were due to go in '04 too. They were due to go in '02.