Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I have said and I repeat it again that the budget day forecasts, both economic and fiscal, have not been changed. The expenditure figures were very generous in the budget. Overall current spending is budgeted to increase by approximately €4 billion — that is all for the services area — which is 8% in a difficult year. Capital spending will increase by approximately €1 billion, which is 12%. Obviously with tax revenues down, that puts pressure on the budget. There is no doubt about that, but on a two months basis we have to monitor that as the year goes on. I have specified the areas in which tax is down.

On the tax break, I am sure the Deputy, like everybody else, was lobbied by the charitable groups around the country, which have done such a good job in developing hospices of which we only have a few, as they want to try to develop more. They wanted to get a tax break to help them develop more hospices. It does not seem an unreasonable thing. We have given tax breaks for a lot of areas over the years and it seems not a bad idea to help those organisations. If the Deputy is against providing those services, that is a point of view.

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