Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that, because from my reading of the report it is clear that the fiscal advisory council's target is 2%. What it is saying to the Government is not to overshoot the 3% target but to come in on it. There are different ways of doing that. The adjustments could have been done closer to the time if there was a belief that it would overshoot. The problem with the approach taken by the fiscal advisory council is that it has front-loaded the adjustments. For example, in the previous report it asked for additional austerity which would have been imposed on people and then if the Government found out it was overshooting the targets it would ease off, whereas where people and the economy require the Government to ease off is now in this period. Would it not be more appropriate to say that the Government should reach the 3% target but to make the necessary adjustments in each year to ensure that it comes in on target?