Derek McDowell (Labour)

I was going to let it pass but as the Minister has come back in I will take the opportunity to respond to one or two of the points he made during his exposition.

A couple of years ago there was something resembling a consensus, perhaps not well-worked out but a consensus nonetheless, on what where the primary drivers of our economic growth and boom. It was traditional at that stage to list factors such as social partnership, the labour market, the existence of a well-educated, English speaking workforce, with some mention too of the taxation system. It is interesting to see how the Minister has quite successfully rewritten history here because he has written off all the factors which most of us regarded as more important. He has now decided that the boom was tax driven, and more specifically that the driver was his own low taxation policy.

I accept that taxation policy has a role. The low rate of corporation tax is probably more important now than at any time in the past ten years. Income tax rates have a lesser role. I do not accept that our economic growth and boom have been driven exclusively by this Minister's policy of low income tax rates. That does not stand up to any examination whatsoever.