Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I can point to recommendations from the ESRI that the Minister has not accepted. I will come to them later.

Another curious aspect of this Bill is that the Minister is amending a number of tax reliefs. Some he has been forced to amend as they have been identified as state aids and he is rowing back on how they can be applied. However, some are being extended and some new tax reliefs are being introduced. This calls into question the credibility of the review the Minister has announced into all tax reliefs. How are we and the public to take this review seriously or to believe it is being conducted in any kind of honest way when in his first legislation after the budget the Minister chooses to extend tax reliefs in certain areas that will help to widen the differentiation between people who have and people who have not in our society? That is the reality of what is proposed in this Bill.

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