Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am dealing with this section. I would ask that I might be allowed to finish my sentence, if that is okay. The €4 billion will increase but the point is that the Minister has three options. The Minister can put in the €4 billion, put in €2 billion, which is half of that, or put in zero. There will be scenarios where one does not have the surplus that allows the Minister to put in €4 billion or €2 billion, or there might be a scenario where the Minister might be able to put in the €3 billion, but he or she does not have that flexibility in the legislation. There may be a scenario where one cannot put in €2 billion for other reasons such as the investment strategy of the Government, or the pressures which may be on the budget, but one could put in €1 billion or €1.5 billion. The flexibility does not exist in this legislation to do that.

This future Ireland fund should be discretionary and should have the ability to put more than 0.8% in, which in fairness it does, but it also should have the flexibility to put in a lesser amount. I have no problem forcing consideration of a certain level and of half of that level as there is not enough flexibility.

I will come back in later on what this means to capital spend, and so on.