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

The council's report this time is different from what I have seen in other reports. It is probably the most critical of the Government's assumptions that I have seen so far. Even though everybody is fixated on the €2 billion target, when we look at the other targets and projections the council is signalling a note of caution. My question was more about a structural issue.

The Fiscal Advisory Council comes out with a report and the following day, the Minister says we are not doing that because we do not need that level of adjustment. His argument is that the Fiscal Advisory Council and other bodies do not have the soft data, as he described it here at yesterday's meeting, which are available to him. There is no point in the council providing that type of report if the data are not also available to it.