Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo what Senator Quinn has said. Sometimes the taxpayer can actually win in the courts. While we talk about entrepreneurship, the sometimes defensive reaction on behalf of the Exchequer is: "Let us go and rewrite the rules. That will teach them to bring cases. You can never overturn the State. You argue with city hall and city hall always wins." We have very long-winded, verbose documents about the nature of entrepreneurship but if a sector has had its tax burden reduced, that is a stimulus to that sector.

I would be worried, particularly as Senator Quinn has said this is now with the Supreme Court, which means we go from overturning a High Court decision to trying to anticipate a Supreme Court decision. I would have liked a discussion on the principles of what is involved here. I would be reluctant to support the position that if the taxpayer gets a break, and presumably those cases cost a large amount of money, the first reaction of the State is to change the rules because the State looks embarrassed if the citizen wins the odd one, although this happens very rarely in the courts. Those are my concerns.