Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

May I come back in on that? If the witness is not going to have an opinion on the matter, then obviously the committee cannot force him to. For what it is worth, I disagree with his view. I understand that he needs to be safe in his responses. Perhaps "safe" is not the word but I understand the council has many stakeholders and that the witness is treading a fine line. However, part of the Professor McHale's job, as I understand it, is to advise on prudent fiscal management of the State. I certainly believe that a view on whether the tax base - the revenue base for next year and future years - should be maintained, eroded or increased would fall very comfortably within fiscal advice to Parliament and the Executive.