Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That brings me to my final question. There is a theme throughout Professor McHale's document. He says that the Government should take advantage of the current relatively strong growth in revenue to eliminate the remaining budget deficit and accelerate the reduction in debt ratio, and that it should take also advantage of the current strong growth in the economy to reduce the debt to safer levels. Earlier in the document, Professor McHale says that the council assesses that the Government's current plans for a €1 billion package in budget 2017, on top of the pre-committed expenditure increases for 2016 and 2017, is at the limit of the range of prudent policies. There appears to be a cautionary tone in that. The Central Bank told us last week that it proposes that we should go further than the 60% target and reduce it past that. Does Professor McHale agree with that assertion? Second, does he agree with the budget package we are putting in place? Are we going a little too far or would he be more cautious in his approach this year?