asked the Minister for Finance if he will give the following figures: (i) the cost of treating working married women as single persons for tax purposes; (ii) the extra cost over and above (i) of increasing the tax allowance bands and so on for married couples to twice that of single persons and (ii) the cost of increasing the tax allowances bands and so on for widows and widowers to twice that of single persons.

The estimated costs for the current tax year would be (i) £20 million (ii) £40 million and (iii) £5 million, respectively.