Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have one question on the issue that was being discussed, the structural balance. The Minister made some interesting observations with which I largely agree about the interpretation of structural balance during the boom years. The key question is this: is the Minister now satisfied that the understanding of what a structural balance means has evolved to the point where if a situation prevailed where one had transient taxes and the revenue base was clearly inflated by a bubble-type scenario, the structural balance would identify that and strip it out as such? Can he give us the reassurance that such is now built into the methodology?