Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I terminated those property tax reliefs, which was the most radical arrangement by anybody in modern times, as far as I know. There were projects in the pipeline for which transitional arrangements were made and a reduction in eligibility was enforced to make sure that we did not have a surge of activity when we were getting rid of those reliefs, so that we would not be increasing property prices again. There is a valid macro-economic argument for those transitional arrangements. I want to emphasise no new projects were allowed after that.

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