Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

In respect of the existing schemes as they are currently constituted, they will terminate in 2006. That pipped the squeak, so to speak, and we saw what happened in the final months of last year when people finally got the message that there would not be a chance of another 12-month or two-year extension. In respect of existing schemes, the termination dates are fixed. I said we were not changing them in respect of the schemes as constituted.

The review we are undertaking is to determine what we can learn from all that, what is good or bad, what we would do if we were starting again and whether we should start from this position, given the current level of economic development. Those are matters for us to decide upon based on what emerges from the review. If I were to prejudge the review, there would be not much point in having it. The questions include the role for tax relief schemes in the future, if any, what areas we would consider are merited or that can give us the community benefit where we have a deficit that cannot otherwise be filled by the marketplace, public provision or whatever? As I said in the Budget Statement, the termination dates stand for existing reliefs as they are constituted. What we do in the future must be determined by the outcome of the review.

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