Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Regardless of what kind of budgetary committee is set up, it will have to deal with the spring economic statement in some way. I will not ask for the ESRI's view on this because it does not have a view. What is Professor Barrett's view on how we deal with that data? Sometimes there are conflicts between what the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council tells us, what the Department of Finance tells us and what the Government then presents in the spring economic statement. It was announced yesterday that there will be approximately €660 million available for current expenditure. That does not, however, take account of the standstill position, on which the ESRI has commented in the past. I think it said, in the context of last year's budget, that welfare increases of €450 million would be needed to manage the standstill position, which is based on indexed payments. It seems there is some kind of consensus on moving beyond indexation of tax bands or social welfare payments. I think this is a way to suggest that there is more flexibility than is actually the case.

In terms of proper budgeting and dealing with the evidence and data, is that an appropriate stance to take or should the standstill position or indexing be factored into the way data are presented to us?