Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister and the officials are very welcome. On the calculation of headroom that will be available by the end of the year, the forecast and the Minister's statement are upbeat about there being extra space at the end of the year. Will the Minister clarify what that is likely to be used for? Will it be for wage increases in terms of the current negotiations with the public sector? Will the Minister also clarify where the additional funding to replace the loss of income from Irish Water will come from? Does he expect it will come out of the headroom mentioned in his presentation? We discussed the disappointing income tax returns for the first quarter with the officials previously. We still do not have an explanation for it. Nonetheless, based on the Minister's statement today, it is likely that there will be additional space by the end of the year at budget time. I do not think anyone who has been a member of the committee would like a repeat of what happened at last year's budget where practically on the morning of the budget, the officials told us that it was all nailed down. I think there was general laughter around the room because most people who were following what we were being told did not anticipate that. We are a budgetary oversight committee. In other parliaments there is an obligation to indicate to their equivalent committees when the figures change. Will the Minister tell the committee what the likely headroom will be this year? What has been pencilled in for areas such as public sector pay and Irish Water? I saw various estimates around €250 million per annum for that. Will that come out of the headroom and will it feature thereafter as a general expenditure amount in the Government accounts?

There is a reference to Brexit in the document. It seems strange that the document has no demands. There is a graph produced in the joint Department of Finance-ESRI study. What demands, if any, is the Government or Department of Finance putting forward to allow Ireland some leeway and room to manoeuvre in the context of the difficulties that the report indicates Ireland is likely to experience as a consequence of Brexit? To date, a number of proposals have emerged. One is to allow increases in capital expenditure outside the deficit procedures of the EU, whereby capital expenditure for agreed projects of the kind the Minister just outlined would not be included in the deficit. For instance, in the case of firms that are expected to lose as a consequence of Brexit, the EU globalisation fund's approach would be adapted to allow Ireland extra leeway to support these firms. The mushroom industry in Monaghan is a well-known example of this, a lot of which came down to currency changes. It would be interesting to hear the Minister's thoughts.

The Minister heavily referenced public private partnerships, PPPs, in relation to the European Investment Bank. This may be something that we as a committee return to, but the cost of PPPs in Ireland has been exceptionally high. We have projects like court projects. If not today, then at a later date, will the officials talk to this committee about whether it is possible to get value for money PPPs, those being PPPs at a reasonable rate, or is it inherent in the PPP structure that they are so expensive to undertake that, like the project for the criminal courts, the annual rental cost is very high compared with the NTMA being able to borrow at very attractive terms, as the Minster noted? I would appreciate some guidance for committee members. We are not far from the budget.

I am sure planning for it is under way. Last year, we spent a number of months hearing the scéal of various people on the budget, but because of the tradition of budgets in this country, we got very little information. On the day, a lot more was made available. We know from the Minister's statement today that he anticipates the same happening this year. Perhaps he would indicate on what he proposes to spend any headroom that arises. I am sure the Minister has done the preliminary figures on the budget. What fiscal space is he contemplating?