Mr. Rob Wright:

And good business. In my opinion there are a few issues in the future and one is the medium-term agenda. The Ministers identified a couple of key instruments and there are others that the committee should note.

I refer to a model to consider. I had the good fortune to be the high commissioner to New Zealand for two and a half years. I have not been back in 20 years but after their crisis they were very bloody-minded in terms of the process of dealing with policy and getting a very effective streamlined tax system and other systems that yield efficiencies in a small open economy. The Ministers hooked on to the financing instruments for small and medium enterprises. Anything that expands on removing barriers to entry for those on lower income to get higher paying jobs and training, these are all investments in the future. On fiscal management I imagine when Ireland gets its fiscal council, some of the things it will be engaged in will be some fiscal anchors over the short and medium term - which for Ireland are perhaps quite different - and more issues that Ireland can manage to ensure it meets the broader objectives of the European Union. If there was a common view in this Parliament that given the framework going forward and the obligations of the country, should the programme for Government identify or be committed to reallocating to meet any additional spend or should it be more focused on medium term instruments that enhance the economic prospects enough to pay for some of these initiatives? That would be a big issue politically for the political parties to consider. I just throw it out there. I do not think there are many Secretaries General in the Irish system that would do that.

On the focus on the limited options if there is a surprise to the upside and the committee's engagement on what would the Minister for Finance want from his colleagues in government, and what are the real limits on the spend if there is something to the upside, I would say, medium-term economic agenda, what are the fiscal parameters over the short term and how to be very specific in terms of the programme for Government, whether it is self-financing or some commitment to the fiscal necessities in that framework. Maybe there is some work the committee should do on the right and most constructive re-engagement on the social partnership to ask what are we going to do together and to have a very open dialogue about not just the limits of what we can do but the potential of what we can do in this new world. It is a question of building balanced growth for the future and ensuring a broad participation in that growth.