Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will make two final points. Professor McHale said that the budgetary package is still prudent at the limits, despite the fact that in the period since he last spoke about this here, the Government decided to spend another €0.5 billion. I am not criticising it for doing that. It got lucky in terms of an AIB transaction that it tried to fight the Commission on and lost, and it was able to spend additional money. However, if it spent €1 billion, would Professor McHale still be calling it prudent policy? We had the same scenario last year where it was still considered prudent policy despite the fact that it spent over €1 billion. Professor McHale was advising that the Government would not go beyond what it was saying after the spring economic statement. It went beyond that and it was still considered prudent policy. I have disagreed with some of the analysis. Professor McHale is constrained in what he has to apply himself to in terms of the rules but I value a strong opinion, whether I think it is right or wrong.