Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If I can put it to you, Mr. Considine, an extract from Regling and Watson where they say "The IMF estimates now that in 2007, when the headline budget was approximately in balance [as was reported at the time], the underlying, structural deficit ... had deteriorated to 8¾ percent of potential GDP and amounted to 4 to 6 percent in the run-up to the crisis." So, while large budget surpluses were being reported, in fact, when you stripped out the cyclical element of much of that tax revenue, there were underlying deficits. Do you now accept that?