Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

In preparing this question, researchers from the Green Party contacted the Department of Finance and sought a comprehensive list of what tax reliefs were being reviewed. They were initially told that such lists could be prepared and would be supplied. They were told subsequently, however, that the information would not be supplied without the Minister's approval. Why is the Minister giving the impression that there is an open examination of all tax reliefs, when it is only a selective review of tax reliefs? The Minister is choosing whether or not that review will determine what reliefs will exist. We can have a wider debate at a time of the Minister's choosing as to which reliefs work and which do not. However, the Minister has chosen not to act. In his last Finance Bill he introduced new tax reliefs and extended the terms of existing tax reliefs without any cost-benefit analysis, so how are we supposed to take him seriously on this issue?

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