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

Given the time constraints, we will not deal too much with that.

Reference was made to the alert mechanism. One of the EU budgetary rules is the expenditure benchmark, something the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has raised several times, as have I. This limits new spending, including tax cuts, to the rate of growth. Can the Department officials set out the legal basis of this rule? How does it differ from rules such as the 3% deficit rule and the 60% debt rule? In drafting next year's budget with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, will the Department of Finance consider the rule binding? What are the penalties if the Government were to breach it? I am keen for the officials to comment, given the fact that in a reply to a Parliamentary Question the Minister provided figures suggesting that sticking to the benchmark would mean that any adjustment in budget 2016 would be limited to €400 million. Is that figure still accurate?