Mr. Michael Tutty:

The Deputy may use those words but we would not. The operations of multinationals have certainly distorted the economic statistics and that is why we are looking at the underlying position. We want to see what is happening in the real economy as opposed to the multinational end. There has been a jump in corporation tax revenues and we would like to see that continue into the future before we rely on them as a firm basis for further expenditures or tax reliefs. If the Apple money were firmly in the Exchequer as receipts, then we could depend on the Government to spend it but whether or not it should all be spent in one year would depend on the economic situation at the time and an assessment of the dangers of overheating the economy. In reality, though, those moneys are not yet ours and it will take a number of years before they will come to us. The question of how or whether we spend them is not a question for this budget.