Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The work the council does is very much appreciated and I find it challenging when it comes before the committee. The reports are very helpful, as are the witnesses' contributions.

I want to start off with the benefit from the promissory notes and the extra €2 billion needed in 2014, with €400 million of that coming from the Department of Social Protection. Our growth base has been supported by exports but that is starting to taper off because of the problems in Europe and Britain. The gains we have made in competitiveness have also started to taper off. Page 11 of the report states that domestic demand has a tendency to be overestimated. Has any thought been given to taking a breather and spending the €1 billion in savings to avoid cutting expenditure in the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Education and Skills? What would the knock-on effect be in the domestic economy?

When talking about structural balance, the major contributory factor is high unemployment having a knock-on effect on domestic demand. It is unsustainable that the construction industry and the retail industry are on the floor. Has any study been done of what would happen to the structural deficit if unemployment dropped by 5%, 10% or 20%? Are we talking about profiling such as that for the next report? Is it worthwhile considering that?

I agree fundamentally with the idea of a property tax. There is, however, a dogma that if we tax property and not labour, it will encourage growth.