Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Not necessarily. It is possible for people to feel a recovery with paced and affordable increases in public expenditure. A big difference between the Deputy and me is that I believe over time - the mid-year expenditure report lays out a pathway for this - that Government expenditure will have to increase and should increase. We need higher levels of public expenditure to invest in facilities and services for people to give them better support in their lives and for our economy to do better. However, we must get to that higher level of public expenditure over time and it must be matched by a growth in tax revenue to allow those steady increases to be delivered.