Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Where is the justice in the fact that 116 people derive €1 million a year each from these credits and will continue to do so because most of them will continue for 13 or 14 years to come? They are not closed because all those people with the big rent books will just move on to private hospitals or private nursing homes. The Minister has closed one door but opened another and that is not equity. There is no commitment to a proper assessment of reliefs for private hospitals and nursing homes, as every commentator urged, so that we can judge whether they represent value for money before we give open-ended tax relief for them.

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