Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

We have had a saga in our newspapers about people running off for expensive weekends at a time when the industry consists of many companies involved in the NAMA process - there are no individuals at this point, it is mostly companies involved in the process. All I am saying is that if people can afford such weekends, I hope neither they nor their companies are in receipt of recourse from the taxpayer. That is what most sensible people think. We are no longer in the Celtic tiger, some modesty might better become some of these individuals and the country might be better for it.

I am quoting Professor Krugman that the key players had an incentive to take big risks because it was heads, they win, tails, someone else loses. We have heard of others of this select band of developers who have taken up residence abroad, and others still who are hanging out permanently in the properties in their spouses' names in places like Marbella and other locations that are not quite as cold as Ireland.

The Minister appreciates the degree to which ordinary taxpayers are outraged about having to pick up the bill at a time when many of the individuals who are associated with the collapse in the property market and the bubble, if they are bankers, are walking off with vast pensions and golden handshakes, while if they are developers they seem to be able to maintain their houses abroad with extensive interests in their spouses' names. In some cases they are making public announcements that from now on they will be tax resident abroad. The 400,000 people who have lost their jobs feel they are at a significant disadvantage compared to these individuals. I do not blame people for making that assessment.

Professor Krugman also stated: "In Ireland regulator looked the other way, in part because the country was trying to attract foreign business, in part because of croneyism: bankers and property developers had close ties to the ruling party." That is what one of the most eminent commentators on economics in the United States has to say about us.

The purpose of amendment No. 3 is to call for a cost-benefit analysis, promised by the Minister's predecessor years ago, to set out the costs and benefits of the various tax breaks that are still integral to our system of taxation. What is the legacy of the cost of these tax breaks to be carried into our tax system over the next seven to 15 years?

We have already had a report from Dr. Peter Bacon on hotels, which states that because of the tax break for construction of hotels, there is a serious over-provision of hotel rooms and the continuation and unlimited nature of the tax break has led to traditional family hotels that have been in business for generations faced with competition from those who are in business for the purpose of the tax break. This is an example of tax breaks gone mad, where they are doing far more harm than good.

The same phenomenon is starting to develop for private hospitals, where much of the private hospital building is not about health and healing the sick, but construction-focused development that qualifies for a tax break. Right around the State there are private hospitals that are entirely reliant on public sector hospitals for their income under the National Treatment Purchase Fund. The logic of their existence relates entirely to the development of the tax breaks created by the Minister's predecessor but one, Charlie McCreevy.

The Minister for Health and Children has plans for between ten and 12 private co-located hospitals around the country. In the current climate, few investors are prepared to take up these opportunities but she nevertheless appears to have advanced plans for at least four such hospitals regardless of our financial situation and the fact that we are oversupplied with private hospitals. We cannot get any information on these projects. Co-located hospitals are the stamp of the Progressive Democrats Party's ideological drive in Government.

As we approach St. Patrick's Day, 23 Ministers will fan out across the world to sell the message that Ireland is a good country in which to invest. However, the most eminent economist in the United States has written a warning article about the Irish mirror, greed gone mad and a plain old-fashioned burst caused in part by tax breaks. If the Minister wants to recover Ireland's reputation for financial probity, which is at the core of the damage done to this country, why does he not commission a cost-benefit analysis of all the tax breaks and their long legacies? Although Fianna Fáil has formally announced the closure of a number of breaks, in practice they are re-opened whenever someone lobbies for them.

We also need a specific statement from him on what has happened to the hotel industry and the likely impact of hospital tax breaks on funding the health service in a context of scarce resources. He may copy his predecessor, Charlie McCreevy, who said, "If I have it, I spend it", and blow any money that comes into the economy on tax breaks for developers and bankers. That was then and this is now, however, and I advise the Minister to commission immediately a study of the €7 billion to €8 billion in outstanding breaks which Irish taxpayers will have to fund.

Will he come before us at the end of the month to seek further funding for the banks, the package for which may already exceed €14 billion? We are hearing estimates of €6 billion for Anglo Irish Bank, €1 billion for Irish Nationwide, €500 million for EBS and €3 billion for each of AIB and Bank of Ireland. All we know is that the figures involved are very high. Are we going to offer tax breaks at a cost of up to €8 billion while at the same time asking ordinary taxpayers to bear the full brunt of recapitalisation? If he wants to sustain confidence in democracy in Ireland, he needs to come forward with a detailed costing of outstanding tax breaks and their cumulative legacy.

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