Co-location row:Fianna Fáil has been attacked by the main Opposition parties after backtracking on the cost to the State of tax breaks for co-located hospitals and admitting a figure given by the Minister for Finance was wrong.
Brian Cowen said on the RTÉ Questions and Answersprogramme on Monday that the cost of the tax relief would be €70 million a year, but after repeated questioning and confusion at Fianna Fáil's final election news conference yesterday, the party said the net cost would be €40 million annually.
The three Ministers attending the press conference, Séamus Brennan, Dermot Ahern and Mary Hanafin, were unable to clarify the figure after coming under pressure from journalists, forcing Mr Cowen's adviser, Colin Hunt, to intervene to give the cost.
Fine Gael yesterday described the co-location plan and the confusion over the cost as a "sham" while the Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, described the scheme as a "scandal" asking who was the real Minister for Finance, Colin Hunt or Brian Cowen.
Asked why the party had not given figures for the co-located hospital plan earlier in campaign Mr Brennan said the figure depended on the number of people who came forward and showed an interest and "the creativity of the packages they put forward".
He added: "We are not sure how many people will come forward, what tax structure will be put in place and what tax relief they will claim and all of that will be put in place in good time.
"There isn't a precise figure, we have to see the number that will go ahead and the amount of co-locations we will run with."
At that point, Ms Hanafin said there were already hospitals which had signed up to the co-location idea .
"We are able to show that in key areas of the country extra beds can be delivered very quickly at a cost of €40 million a year until 2011. . . that is the fastest, most efficient way of delivering beds to people who need them."
Then, reading from a note which had been passed to him by a Fianna Fáil press officer, Mr Brennan said the annual net cost of co-location would be €40 million each year for seven years.
When it was pointed out that Mr Cowen had said the figure would be €70 million, Mr Brennan said: "It depends on the number that go ahead and maybe the figure is between €40 and €70 based on a judgment number going ahead." It was a this point that Mr Hunt stepped forward to say the true cost would not be €70 million but €40 million annually after tax buoyancy was taken into account.
Fine Gael deputy leader and finance spokesman Richard Bruton later described the co-location plan as a "sham" and accused Fianna Fáil of pretending they had provided costings when they hadn't.
"First, it was going to be costless; then the costs were, what, €70 million a year, €490 million over seven years. Then it had dropped by the press conference down to €40 million. Then, in the middle of the press conference, it surged again." Mr Bruton said co-location was a tax-driven scheme whereby private investors would get tax relief at up to 42 per cent on the investment in hospital beds. He said the Government had not properly thought this through.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said Fianna Fáil was now in disarray and that co-location was an ideologically motivated plan that was never thought through at all.
Brian Cowen gave a very definite answer on Questions and Answers and yesterday Fianna Fail Ministers had to call in an adviser to "beat a retreat". "Who is the real Minister for Finance? Brian Cowen or Colin Hunt?"