Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I do not recall anybody in the House saying that, at the right time and for the right duration, tax-based incentive schemes cannot make a contribution to economic activity. That is not the issue and the Taoiseach knows that better than most in the House. The issue is that they were allowed to go on and on and were renewed and extended. There was no cost-benefit analysis of their merit at any given time. However, as Deputy Kenny said, it was suspected that the Department of Finance would have known that some of them had long outlived their usefulness when Ministers were forced to come into the House and announce that they would take action on them——

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