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

Today, the chair of the Eurogroup stated it was unlikely that Ireland, or any country for that matter, would get retroactive bank capitalisation. Given that compliance with the debt rule is one on which the fiscal council must concentrate, does Professor McHale see any scope in this area? Yesterday, the Minister said the State will make an application for retroactive capitalisation but it does not figure in the council’s calculations.

I brought up the issue of the structural deficit with the Minister yesterday. I understand what Professor McHale said earlier about the convergence towards the structural deficit being met by 2018 or that process beginning then. The Government’s April stability programme update sees the structural deficit being at 0%, basically a balanced budget, by 2018. The actual target, however, is 0.5%.