Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 20 June 2017

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Irish Fiscal Advisory Council: Discussion

4:00 pm

Mr. Eddie Casey:

It might be easier to clear that up by reference to a different voice. We are moving from one system of rules to another system of rules. We might have given the impression that we are using those revenues to increase expenditure. That is what we intended and it was allowable under the old regime and the corrective arm. One could still get to the same deficit by increasing spending but offsetting it with higher revenues from corporate tax. Under the new system, it might have happened in 2016 to an extent as we showed, but that led to a breach of these new rules. We are saying that this should not happen in future. The new rules prevent one from doing that, which is appropriate, because there are potentially windfall revenues. We are saying that as they come in they should not be used to fund permanent expenditure increases. If we gave a different impression, that is the position.

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