Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

You can, although I wish to put some questions.

Let us go back to the beginning and the conversation with Deputy Pat Rabbitte. The representatives of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council have said there were echoes of where we were. We are not really dealing with the same figures as was the case in 2003 and 2004. The echoes do not correspond. I was a Member of the Parliament at the time and I remember budgets for health alone were increasing year on year by more than €1 billion per annum during the course of the Celtic tiger. That was only one Department. There were also the benchmarking one and benchmarking two agreements as well as extra expenditure in all Departments. As the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council representatives have said, it was all built on the loose foundation of tax receipts from one sector of the economy. We are not in that scenario at the moment. Some of my colleagues in the House may choose to read one part of the report but, in fact, they want to spend like crazy as well on other aspects.