Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

That would be an argument in favour of accepting the Opposition proposal of €600 million at full implementation — whenever it would decide how to implement it — at a minimum of three years for the benefit of 45,000 or 50,000 people to be paid for by 2.15 million other people who were not in the process of buying a house at that time. This is not an equitable situation or a properly thought out proposal. A Minister for Finance does not have the luxury of speculating in this way. He or she must consider all of the issues with regard to how he or she might help by way of taxation.

I respectfully suggest that dealing with the inequity which exists in our PRSI system whereby a millionaire pays the same as a working couple on €48,800 would provide a greater social benefit. A better way of expending tax expenditure would be through tax reform rather than this particularly ill-thought out proposal, however well-intentioned it was. I can give a benign interpretation by suggesting it was well-intentioned when really it was a vote buying attempt by the Opposition to win an economic argument it knew it could not win.