Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

The Minister should be aware that my supplementary question is a development of the point that the most recent statistics relate to 2003. A significant amount of alteration has occurred in the tax reliefs available. The Minister has chosen to extend some but he has not renewed many and some have been brought in that have not been costed since 2003. The Minister has also indicated in the last two budget speeches a new procedure for assessing the introduction of new tax reliefs. However, this does not seem to be as open as it could be.

Will the Minister consider making statistics of this type available on a regular basis? He could measure not only the anticipated tax expenditure with each of these tax reliefs but where loopholes have been identified with each of these tax reliefs — I have brought them to his attention before — the estimated amount of loss to the State as a result of each loophole. Each year the Finance Bill prevents a number of loopholes being closed. Members of this House and the public are given no assessment of the loss that has been accruing to the State as a result of the existence of those loopholes. Has the Minister any proposals in mind for making this information more widely available?

See this speech in context