Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Mr. Cullen for his presentation. My question is general. The purpose of this meeting is scrutiny of tax expenditures. I am interested in having a layman's outline of the process. For example, if we take the help-to-buy incentive scheme, which is clearly a tax expenditure, what is the process from when the plan is hatched through to the development and germination of the idea and the scheme? Who decides what the costings are? It is clear that the witnesses know their business. What happens after the germination of a scheme such as the help-to-buy scheme? What should happen? In which way is the scheme not operating in the way it should? It strikes me that lay people watching proceedings would say if they were budgeting in their households the same way as in this particular tax expenditure, it would be clear that somebody would have to pick up the tab at the end of the day. If we take the help-to-buy scheme, it was estimated it would be €50 million in one year and now we are talking about it being more than €180 million when it closes. Will the witnesses take me through the process from the time somebody comes up with a hare-brained idea to where it is costed and we end up with so many mistakes? What should happen to make sure the mistakes of over-expenditure do not happen in any scheme?