All political parties tend to claim that elements of their manifestos were costed by the Department of Finance. Neither I, as Minister for Finance, not my Department commented on this matter either during or since the election. If one writes to the Department of Finance and inquires about the cost of keeping six ganders on the Hill of Howth for four years, the Department will, to the best of its ability, provide such a costing. However, the Department did not, in any instance, consider a document supplied by a political party and state that the figures it contained added up. A number of parties stated that their proposals had been costed by the Department. Individual proposals were costed, but the Department of Finance has never put a document together for any of the parties or tried to make the figures add up for them. It was stated at many press conferences during the election campaign that the Department of Finance had costed various proposals. Neither I nor my officials commented on the matter, but I know the latter were highly embarrassed by such claims.