Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to follow up on that. We had the notion that the Department was just asking questions. We want answers. This is an independent budget scrutiny committee. Its establishment was part of the reforms that came about to try to stop the last financial crash and we are not getting answers. Mr. Moran's Department representatives came in here a week before the budget and said that the fiscal space was €1 billion but on the day of the budget it became €1.2 billion. An additional €200 million was magicked up out of nowhere on the morning of the budget. What is our role in terms of asking interest groups to come before this committee to present their case and for us to make an assessment of that case when in terms of an additional €200 million, it is as if the Taoiseach went out and bought a lottery ticket?

Public service pay was done on the hoof. We had a Garda deal bringing forward aspects of the Lansdowne Road agreement. As I look at the various Department figures, all of them are more or less on profile, which is a tribute to everybody, but in terms of the room to find that kind of expenditure, it will come from making choices within Departments. That means cutting other programmes. This is a budget scrutiny committee and if we are to work to the role of this committee, we have to make an assessment on that in terms of choices that will be made within Departments so that when the witnesses' colleagues in line Departments come before us, we can put that to them. That is the frustration felt by the members of this committee. We are either an ornament or part of the budgetary process and until we start getting answers, and using the answers to the questions we are asking to make our contributions to this debate, I will continue to be frustrated.

I want to raise a couple of other issues. Regarding yesterday's figures, we focus on income tax in terms of corporation tax, excise tax and across all the headings they are behind profile. For instance, excise tax is down €244 million on 2016; it is €91 million behind profile. Corporation tax is down €134 million on 2016; it is €180 million before profile, and we have gone through the income tax. Mr. Moran explained that by describing corporation tax as being lumpy etc. but is it not time to change the profile modelling system? Ten years ago, the Department of Finance was getting its forecasts completely wrong and that was an element that should have been addressed in terms of the position post-crisis. Are we moving back into the space where the Department's forecasting models are not reflecting what is happening in the economy?