Vol. 493 No. 3
245 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Finance the plans, if any, he has to extend the proposed pilot rural renewal scheme to include residential owner occupier benefits; if this option has been investigated; and, if so, if he will provide a full and detailed report on this. [15827/98]
I have no plans to extend the proposed pilot rural renewal scheme to include residential owner occupier benefits. This would mean giving tax relief to the owners of all new houses or to owners who carry out refurbishment on their houses in two counties and in a significant portion of three other counties. Apart from the dead-weight effect of giving tax relief to what many such owners would have been doing in any event, such very generous treatment would be resented by the inhabitants of other counties who would inevitably demand a similar concession. As the Deputy will no doubt appreciate, all this would be extremely costly to the Exchequer.
