Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

-----between yourself and the Government Whip. Yesterday, the Minister, either by accident or design, but in my view rightly, assented to a simple, cost free amendment on the part of the Labour Party to have a report on the cost of tax expenditures presented within a month of the Finance Bill. I welcomed the Minister's new spirit of bipartisanship earlier because it makes sense. The Minister is now saying he is resiling from what he and the Government assented to last night and he failed to comment when the Ceann Comhairle's deputy clearly called the item three times. The Clerk and the Clerk Assistant are present and I believe they were both present last night also. Are they suggesting that the Leas-Cheann Comhairle did not call the matter clearly because he did so? We then moved on to the next business, and that is where we are now.

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