John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

Most of those tax relief schemes have served their purpose at this stage. We have heard woolly talk before from the Minister, Deputy Cowen, about initiating a review. I was hoping that some significant changes would be announced in that regard today. We heard nothing either about any reduction in stealth charges that were imposed last year, such as increases in bank charges and the cost of passports. Such increases were announced across the board last year as a way of sneaking an extra couple of million euro here and there to help balance the books. I am happy the Minister did not use his Budget Statement to increase stealth charges further but he could have used the opportunity presented to him today to reduce them.

I was amused by the Minister of State's reference to micro-breweries. I do not see any reason behind today's budgetary proposals on micro-breweries.