Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I will do the best I can but I am a Member only 21 years. We have a zero rate on food and a reduced rate applies to many services. It is like everything, one cannot compare apples with oranges all the time, although sometimes we all do so to exaggerate the point. The Deputy will find nobody in Monaghan on that wage who has to pay that rate to the local authority. Even an authority with seven Sinn Féin councillors could not make it happen.

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