Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

In fairness to the Department of Finance and the tax strategy group, I was speaking about discussions held ten years ago when €6,000 would have been a much more realistic figure than it sounds today. As my record in the Seanad shows, I certainly would have been against the continuation of many of the multimillion euro reliefs. I am not sure the seaside home scheme was ever a good one. It was introduced by the Government of which Deputy Burton's party was part. I certainly fully support the policy followed by the Tánaiste under which these schemes are being phased out and pension contributions are being capped.

There are two amendments. Obviously, if a good, efficient and fair way could be found to administer tax relief at source, there is a policy in place to do this. It would have to be administered through the local authority in the case of a public authority service charge, although it would be more complicated where the private sector was involved and especially complicated in an area such as my constituency where there are a few examples of the management companies about which Deputy Burton spoke.

What I feel is a bad amendment is the previous one which suggests the limit should be removed in respect of the charged levied by the relevant authority. One must understand the psychology of local authorities. Sometimes strapped for cash, they would be able to justify practically any increase in bin charges on the grounds that it was tax deductible. It would be most undesirable from the point of view of those who must pay these charges, namely, the citizenry, if there was unlimited relief because I do not think they would be the beneficiaries.

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