Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will interrupt Dr. McDonnell briefly. The reason I asked the question was that the implication in the Governor's letter, which Dr. McDonnell referred to earlier, is that there is choice in the sense that one could simply raise more taxes. The critical issue, and I think everyone who spoke today seems to be agreed on this, is investment. In effect, the Governor's formula in terms of the medium term is essentially a kind of noose around the development of further investment. I think this will be a critical issue in terms of what the committee has been asked to do in terms of the budget strategy and am wondering if Dr. McDonnell agrees with that approach.