Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael)

The Minister of State made the point about the benefit of the tax relief available - €3.5 billion out of €13.5 billion of tax reliefs put on Revenue. Also, people have had the benefit of having funds that have the benefit of the tax relief being placed into a management fund that makes profit. The tax relief that the State has given is also increasing in value because the profits are available.

There is this small amount of money, a temporary amount. As I stated earlier, some people will be caught more than others but the State has given the individuals and the industry the opportunity, with the tax relief, to go into a fund, which then makes profit. The individual is getting the tax relief that is increasing in value with the profitability of the fund over decades and then those people also at this stage are having the maximum benefit of decades of accrual of profit. The Opposition is choosing to ignore that also.