Bertie allowed little relief on taxing matters

Dail Sketch/Frank McNally: Such is the plethora of tax shelters already in existence, from park-and-ride facilities to stallions…

Dail Sketch/Frank McNally: Such is the plethora of tax shelters already in existence, from park-and-ride facilities to stallions' fees, that when Bertie Ahern mentioned something alled the "SSAI scheme" yesterday, we thought he was introducing yet another one.

There was barely time to speculate on who would benefit - artificial inseminators in the sheep sector, maybe? - before Mr Ahern corrected himself. He meant "SSIA" of course.

But the non-extension of tax relief to sheep-breeders did not exempt the Government from criticism of its largesse to date.

A "historical lookback", the Taoiseach called the Department of Finance review of reliefs, which had concluded that the various schemes were worth a cumulative €3 billion to those who used them over the years.

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The Opposition looked back in anger, however, and rejected Mr Ahern's implication that abuse of the shelters was a thing of the past, from which all necessary lessons had been learned.

Pat Rabbitte accused the Government of selling the idea that the problem was historic, "that it's over". It was not over, he insisted. Most of the property schemes would continue until 2008, "the other side of the general election", when the hand of history might have lifted from the Government's shoulder.

Enda Kenny wanted a "statutory sunset clause" on all future reliefs. But even amid the Taoiseach's general theme of closure, in which unjustified reliefs would park-and-ride into the statutory sunset clause on fully taxed stallions, Mr Ahern also mounted a staunch defence of the schemes' record.

Many had been introduced at a time "when the country was on its knees", he said. The critics who suggested they should have been subject to advance cost-benefit analyses and other controls were "mandarins who didn't understand the real world".

If they'd had their way, there would have been no schemes, and the country "would still be a basket case".

During one of Bertie's pauses, Joe Higgins offered his own, four-word summary of what the schemes were all about: "fattening up the speculators".

Undaunted, the Taoiseach resumed, describing how the reliefs had helped the economy boom and thereby generated "hundreds of millions" in new taxes. It was unfortunate, but inevitable, that "a few bright sparks" had found ways to exploit them in the process.

Mr Rabbitte suggested that the Taoiseach had an unduly high opinion of the sparks. You didn't need to be a member of Mensa to find loopholes in some of the schemes. Besides, the Labour leader added, in a rare compliment to the Government's advisers, "there are bright sparks working for you."

Trevor Sargent disturbed the Opposition consensus to raise the imminent 25th anniversary of the Stardust fire and suggest that few lessons had been learned from the disaster.

"A cold shiver runs up the spine," he said, at the thought of how we would cope with another Stardust.

A rather happier anniversary featured briefly during the Order of Business debate when the Ceann Comhairle ruled Enda Kenny out of order on a question about criminal activity in sea-fishing.

The Fine Gael leader drew the House's attention to the fact that it was the Ceann Comhairle's birthday.

Dr O'Hanlon told him he was still out of order.