Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

That was all forgotten as well. This will come home to roost; it will not work. I say this for a purpose. As Minister for Finance, I am duty bound to say it. I do not engage in speculation on these matters for obvious reasons and I do not think anybody else should be engaged in speculation either. There are procedures that can be followed if people want to seek taxation reform. It is not done on the basis of implementing a proposal over the next three years. Based on the figures for houses sold in the first ten months of last year, only 3,990 people out of a total of 44,500 bought houses valued at more than €635,000. As Senator Mansergh stated, it is proposed to reduce stamp duty for people who buy houses worth in excess of €700,000, but at the same time no effort is made to give a few extra bob to ordinary working people by indexing the tax bands. Fine Gael proposes to spend €460 million on 50,000 people and put at risk the equity of 1.6 million households. If that is the kind of Government we will have if Fine Gael is elected, I can guarantee the Celtic tiger will not roar too long.

On price inflation, the trend for 2007 is expected to be downward and more so from mid-year. We have passed the peak that was largely due to European Central Bank interest rate rises and international oil prices. When inflation is measured on a common EU basis, with mortgage interest stripped out, it is 2.6% compared with 1.8% on average in the eurozone. Our growth is three times the eurozone rate. That is not a bad performance, comparatively speaking, but we need to remain vigilant.

I am pleased the business expansion and seed capital schemes have been welcomed, as has the introduction of the mid-Shannon scheme. I have published all the cost benefit analyses of all these schemes and they are available on the website. They are in line with the recommendations from the consultants that we would have a time-limited, targeted approach to see if they would work out.

I made my point on stamp duty. However, the emphasis and the consistent policy in the housing market has always been to try to assist first-time buyers.