Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Is it true that there are Irish tax exemptions for which the Department of Finance has never carried out a cost benefit analysis? My other hat is that of an engineer and I expect the undergraduate engineers I teach to carry out some form of sensitivity analysis on their chemical process designs. It is astonishing that the whole of the apparatus of the Department would not perform a sensitivity analysis on every tax exemption in 2005 as a matter of routine. The decisions regarding what should be done are political and based on the Government's detachment. However, it is possible to make some analysis.

If a tax exemption is provided for something, whether it is income tax or a housing development, but the impact on the local environment is not examined in terms of sewage, water and so on, then we are living in a society of a series of Chinese walls. We do not know enough about these matters. What we want to happen will, but what we must do our sums and determine whether the social gain is worth the social generosity of eliminating tax exemptions.

One aspect that is worth examining is whether the activity would take place without tax incentives. There are many activities that would not take place if this were the case, particularly multinational investment. I do not dispute this but the modus operandi of the most powerful Department of State intrigues me.