Things have certainly changed: at the Foundation of Fiscal Studies annual conference last weekend, legal and social policy consultant Ita Mangan said that in the Commission on Taxation's first report in 1982 the then chairman of the Revenue Commissioners said the Dependent Relative Allowance was "the most abused allowance in the tax system". The small allowance was available to carers of those on very low incomes and at that time 140,000 were claiming it. Mangan observed amid laughter from the financial gurus: "I suspect this comment represents the golden age of innocence about tax abuse."