Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Indeed, I am. Property-based tax breaks, especially tax breaks which facilitate the privatisation of our health care system, have made very little difference to the long-term performance of our economy. However, they have resulted in the State forgoing hundreds of millions of euro in revenue. A recent article published in The Sunday Business Post showed that a tax investor who puts €75,000 worth of equity into a private hospital would benefit to the amount of €293,000 in capital allowances over seven years. That would offset the investor's tax bill on any other rental income. The investment has been described as a State subsidised bonanza for extremely wealthy investors who will be queueing up to direct their money into private hospitals at a time when there is a property slump. These tax breaks will do nothing for our economy, but will do more damage to our public health care system.

I call for a review of the VAT system because we have continued evidence of price disparities. A recent survey has shown that homeware was as much as 53% more expensive at Laura Ashley and 49% more expensive at Dunnes Stores, while clothing at Monsoon, Reiss and Next were 40%, 33% and 37% more expensive in outlets in the Twenty-six Counties, respectively, than in the Six Counties. Therefore, I am pressing the recommendation.