Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will make one last point. The fiscal council suggests it is unwise to use the fiscal space of €1.2 billion in next year's budget but that €750 million would be more appropriate. Does the Deputy think that macroeconomics is such a refined art that the spending of an extra €450 million will ruin a country with a budget in excess of €50 billion? The amount of money it has identified as being between its position and my position for 2016 seems within a margin of error and it is certainly around the figure by which the Department of Health overruns its Estimate in most years. I do not get the argument but that is not to say the fiscal council does not do a good job and, generally, it is in the same space as I am in terms of the management of fiscal affairs. We are obliged to reply to the fiscal council's submission and we will do so in detail in the next couple of weeks. We will then publish our reply on the website.