The House should note that this was the first decision made by the Government without hiring a consultant.

I wish to ask the Tánaiste about the VAT loophole, closed off by the House in the financial resolutions on budget day, that enabled developers to abuse tax law and avoid payments on building land. Is the Tánaiste aware that it operated on the basis of arranging the letting of development land to builders on a short-term basis so that the transactions of sale of site and sale of buildings could be separated? The result was enormous moneys forfeited by the Exchequer. Is the Tánaiste aware how long this has been going on? Will she tell the House how much money has been lost to the Exchequer? When did she first become aware of this loophole? Is it the case that this has been going on for almost eight years? Is it the case that hundreds of millions of euro have been lost to the Exchequer? Is it the case that a number of Ministers were well aware of this for years?

It was not until the whistle was blown and it was brought to the attention of the Revenue Commissioners by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee that any action was taken. Will the Tánaiste explain how, having spent the last eight years rubbing shoulders with developers on every conceivable occasion, including the tent at the Galway races, Ministers could have been ignorant of this and hundred of millions could have been forgone?

I am not aware that this loophole has existed for eight years. A measure was passed last week to put this beyond doubt. It gives the Revenue Commissioners the necessary power to look again at cases that might have availed of the loophole. I became aware of this only in November of this year when the Revenue Commissioners brought it to the attention of the Minister for Finance. I was not aware that a loophole of this kind had been in existence for quite some time. I do not believe that a Deputy ever raised this in the House. We have closed off this loophole and it is right that we should have done so.

It is not that this loophole might have been used – it was used extensively. On questioning the Taoiseach, he instanced one small scheme where €18 million was forgone. Deputy Perry brought it to the attention of both the Comptroller and Auditor General and the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. If this has been going on for seven or eight years, given the close nexus between developers – the major source of funds for Fianna Fáil – how could this not be known? Does the Tánaiste agree with me that in circumstances where capital gains tax had been cut for developers from 40% to 20%, where they engaged in excessive profit-taking beyond their wildest dreams for the past seven or eight years and where the 60% capital gains tax introduced as a penalty in the 1998 Finance Act was repealed when it came to bite, it is unreasonable to believe that this was not known in Government circles and was effectively facilitated over those years?

If it has been happening for the past eight years, then Deputy Rabbitte was in Government when it started.

I did not know about it.

Neither did I, nor do I believe the Government knew about it and, to the best of my knowledge, no parliamentary questions were tabled on this matter.

The developers knew about it.

That may well be the case. However, beneficiaries are not going to blow the whistle on themselves. There is an onus on us all when we become aware of loopholes like this to do what we can to remedy them.

When he was debating the resolution, the Taoiseach said that we had become aware of one scheme where the sum of money involved was €16 million or €18 million. This is the only knowledge I have on this matter.

The Taoiseach did not say there was only one scheme. He instanced one scheme.

Deputy Rabbitte, please allow the Tánaiste to continue without interruption.

We have put the matter right and did so as soon as it came to the Government's attention. I understand that the Revenue Commissioners brought it to the Government's attention. If the Public Accounts Committee was aware of this, it should have brought it to our attention. Perhaps the Chairman of the committee spoke to the Minister for Finance and if he did, I would welcome that. The important thing is that the loophole is closed and no one else can avail of it. No matter what tax schemes we have, we seem to have professionals in this town who know no boundaries when it comes to finding a way through the tax code with a view to creating avoidance measures.