Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

The object of the exercise, which successive Governments have supported, including Governments of which I have been a member in the past, has been to preserve the heritage. If people live in a house of that kind and spend money to maintain it, they only get the tax relief if they open the doors of those houses to the wider public. That is the public benefit of that measure. Individual status, in terms of people's income, is secondary to the overall objective cited in the Deputy's question.

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