Mr. John Palmer:

It is a question of timing. The Deputy is talking about budget 2018 but the regulation is very clear that one can only get a warning of a significant deviation if it is an observed significant deviation. That is why the warning issued to Romania in May relates to last year. If we were to be found to have significantly deviated in respect of 2017, they could only do it next May when they have had the EDP returns at the end of March from the CSO and when they have had the stability programme update from ourselves at the end of April. In terms of timing, this would not be an issue for budget 2018 no matter what. If they then find we have a significantly observed deviation, we are into the process Mr. McCarthy outlined. We get a warning, a recommendation of the steps to take to correct it and then separately under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Minister for Finance and the Government is required to prepare a corrective action plan and present it to the Dáil within two months of the warning. That plan has to take on board any recommendation from the Council. If we are on course to hit the MTO in 2018, they cannot give us recommendations to overachieve it. It is slightly messy in terms of timing and so forth, but we have to proceed the way we do.