Mr. John McCarthy:

No, because we are now in the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact so our fiscal requirements are set on the basis of the structural deficit. Cyclical variations in tax and expenditure are removed from the calculation. Our requirement, and Government policy, is to balance the books in structural terms by 2018 and our arithmetic takes that into account. If there is a cyclical shock to the economy it should not affect the structural number. It will affect the headline number-----