Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It has been. In respect of report No. 37 and the fifth general review, received in January 1997, on 4 March 1997 the Government published a report stating that in line with the established Government policy of accepting the recommendations of this independent review body, the Government had decided to accept the recommendations of report No. 37 in principle. It went on to say, because there was an election coming up, that the question of implementation of the rates that would flow from the recommendation would be considered at a later date. When the new Government took office it deferred implementation of the report until March 1998. The Government then announced the implementation of the recommended increases, backdated to 1 April 1997. All Members in that outgoing Administration took up that increase.

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