Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is information that the Minister and his Department did not communicate to the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. The essence of the problem is that these kinds of tax breaks, where merited, can be extremely useful in generating economic activity and employment, especially in regions or parts of the country that need employment. We know many parts of the country are not getting the employment bonus that they should be getting which is evident in the big cities and towns. I am at a loss to understand why the Minister, the Department of Finance and indeed the Revenue Commissioners should be so reluctant to provide detailed information so that each year, three years or four years we can make decisions on which have outlived their usefulness and which deserve to be continued and if there are cases for new measures.

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