Reaction: Opposition parties have accused the Minister for Finance Brian Cowen of ignoring key recommendations contained in the independent consultants' review on tax breaks.

Fine Gael spokesman on finance Richard Bruton said the response of Mr Cowen to the review was "little more than bluff and bluster".

He said the gross cost of the various tax reliefs reviewed in the reports was equal to twice the benefits that arose out of them.

"Minister Cowen had an opportunity to rule out any new tax incentives, or to extend any existing schemes, unless they have been justified by a rigorous cost-benefit study," Mr Bruton said.

"This was a key recommendation ... it is very regrettable that Minister Cowen chose not to implement this recommendation.

"Tax relief is a very blunt instrument for achieving social or economic objectives. We need to subject it to very close scrutiny.

"Against this background it is difficult to understand why the Minister has not acted on key recommendations made to him in respect of these reliefs," he said.

Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said the reports showed that the tax incentives were "a rich man's game" and benefited the very wealthy as opposed to middle- and low-income workers.

She said there were "extraordinary benefits to a select number of individuals investing in small self-administered pension schemes", which allow for tax-free lump sums to be given to individual investors.

Certain schemes allowed companies to pump large amounts of money into pension schemes tax-free to benefit their directors,

She cited two cases outlined in the report, where two individuals were able to remove €25 million each in lump sums tax-free from €100 million pension funds.

She said the figures also showed that following the introduction of the tax breaks, the combined value of the schemes mushroomed from just over €20 million to more than €1 billion.

"It seems from this report that the beneficiaries of property-based tax schemes, such as builders and developers not alone avoid paying tax as a consequence of schemes such as park and ride and private car parks, but as retirement approaches they have ready-made channels for setting up extraordinarily lucrative pension schemes funded by even more tax breaks by the State," she said.

The generous tax-free schemes for the wealthy allowed by Government "contrasts sharply with the parsimonious attitude of the Minister to the SSIA scheme announced last week for low-earners".

Ms Burton also questioned the value of the schemes that have been allowed to continue, such as tax breaks for childcare facilities.

She said the report found that the current scheme drove up the cost of building the facilities, but did nothing to reduce the cost of childcare for parents.

Green Party finance spokesman Dan Boyle described the reports as "disappointing" in that the report's recommendations were mild and advised that some of the schemes be allowed to continue.

"The Minister for Finance's reluctance to follow through on many of the mild recommendations included in the reports indicates a lack of willingness on the Government's part to properly deal with the economic unfairness that many of these reliefs help to bring about," Mr Boyle said.

Sinn Féin's leader in the Dáil Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the reports "expose the massive waste of public money involved in these property-based tax reliefs".