Analysis: The days of big personal tax reductions are over. But there may be some relief, if the Exchequer finances allow over the next few years.That was the message from an upbeat Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, at yesterday's announcement of the Finance Bill.

The 2004 Bill has long been trailed as a minimalist exercise, with much of the civil service machine focused on our EU presidency. The Bill is the shortest of Mr McCreevy's time in office - but at 160 pages would still make an efficient door stop.

Its most notable provisions relate to tax reliefs. Mr McCreevy's philosophy is based on low tax rates, but he made clear yesterday that he still believes in "focused tax breaks" to encourage economic activity - and followed through on a Budget promise to extend a range of property reliefs until mid-2006.

In this regard, the calls over a number of years from business and tax advisers to change the legislation to encourage holding companies and corporate headquarters to establish here have been answered comprehensively. A generous package of changes should allow Ireland to compete with other locations - particularly the Netherlands - to attract the European headquarters of major multinational operations.

A similar motivation - to attract higher profile investment, this time in R&D - was behind a new tax credit in this area. Businesses' initial reaction was cool, because of restrictions imposed and there may be discussion of this element at committee stage.

Elsewhere the Bill did not have much more than that already announced on Budget day. The Revenue is to be given new powers to examine the records of foreign subsidiaries of Irish financial institutions, to underpin their existing trawl in this area.

And legislation is introduced - backdated to last March - to outlaw a revision of the scheme under which investors were to buy the AIB building in the IFSC and qualify for generous tax allowances.

The Department already moved against a couple of earlier variations of this scheme, with the latest involving a complex corporate structure.

The question now is whether any of the new reliefs introduced in Finance Bill 2004 will require similar anti-avoidance legislation due to "imaginative" uses in the years ahead.