Mr. Robert Watt:

I am also allowed to put forward an alternative view.

The deficit projected for 2012 was 8.6%, but it came in at 7.5%. The overall general Government deficit was better by €1.5 billion. On overall spending, Supplementary Estimates were required for certain Votes and offset by savings in other areas. There are variants across some subheads, with underestimates and overestimates. The point I was making was that overall gross spending was managed tightly and aligned with the budget profile. This is a consistent performance of the system. Every year we are spending in line with budget, meeting the troika’s targets and the deficit is coming down. We have even exceeded our reduction targets. Yesterday we came out with numbers for the first three quarters of this year. Net spending is €800 million below profile, €500 million on the current side and €300 million on the capital side.

We are going to have to disagree on the point about the basic information my Department provides. I stand over what I said in my opening statement. In response to numerous reports from the committee over decades, we have moved to providing detailed information not just on how much is spent in each Vote but on the outcomes. All of this information is given to Oireachtas committees. All committees can have informed discussions not just on how much we are spending but on what we are trying to achieve with that spend. That is a significant change to what happened in the past.