Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My last question is on this budget. The language Professor McHale used in his report was interesting in terms of not relying on corporation tax, which may be volatile, and the fact that 41% of corporation tax is paid by ten companies, a statistic I have raised time and again. He also makes the point that it should not be used in the expenditure that is not easily reversed. I presume that is code for saying that the Government should be investing in capital infrastructure. Despite the restrictions in the fiscal rules, we have €1 billion that we can decide to spend in whatever way we want. We can put it into current expenditure, cut taxes for individuals or invest in capital.

Is it correct that the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is stating that capital investment is the most appropriate use of some of the fiscal space in this year's budget, as opposed to permanent increases or decreases, which it stated would be costly to reverse?