Mr. John Hogan:

One of the innovations and developments in the budgetary process over recent years has been the much earlier publication of the tax strategy group, TSG, papers. This may have originated in a suggestion from this particular committee. The tax strategy group now meets in July and throughout the summer. It is chaired by officials from the Department of Finance. We look at a range of options that may arise in the context of different tax measures. Stamp duty was one measure included in this year's TSG papers, and perhaps those of last year. Putting those documents and figures together involved conversations between teams at different levels in the Department of Finance and the Revenue Commissioners.