Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

I do not argue the merits of tax reliefs and expenditures among the 33 quoted. Does the Minister believe it is good practice that, as Minister for Finance, he does not know the costs of almost one third of all tax reliefs in the State? How can he, as Minister, make any decision on any of those reliefs or how can we, as Opposition, make proposals in their regard if we do not have a clue about how much tax is foregone to the State? The Minister is making guesses as to why we do not have the figures. Does he intend to have them? Is it not good practice for us to have the cost, or at least the estimated cost, of all tax reliefs? We do not have any figures for one third of them.

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