Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I believe that taking the approach of very large tax reductions in any particular budget is not the right way to go. The Taoiseach shares that view. I do not have a figure on tax expenditures available to me now, but I will get it for the Deputy during the committee meeting. Could I reallocate that tax expenditure to additional expenditure or additional investment? My answer to that question is that I do not think there is a massive opportunity to do so. My experience of tax expenditure to date has been that it is either delivering something in our economy that we want to deliver or it has become an integral part of how people calculate their take-home pay and disposable income at the end of a week or month.

On the question of supplementary budget for the Department of Justice and Equality, I cannot give any indication at the moment except that I am planning one. I am working on that with the Department of Justice and Equality at the moment. An Garda Síochána has a budget of between €1.5 billion and €1.6 billion this year.