McCreevy’s legacy on tax rates and prices

I REFER to the article by David Clerkin headlined ‘Charlie tackled taxing job with aplomb’ (Irish Examiner, September 28).

Charlie McCreevy has been given undue credit for many measures that have affected the economy in recent years.

John Bruton, as head of the rainbow coalition in January 1997, introduced the low corporation tax rate of 12.5%. It was not the work of Charlie McCreevy, as the article stated. The first finance minister to run a budget surplus in the history of the state was Ruairi Quinn in the 1997 rainbow coalition budget again not Charlie McCreevy.