Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If I may make one general comment at the beginning of my contribution, I am really disappointed that there are no women at the top table of the finance team. In this day and age, I get fed up that myself, Deputy Madigan and a small number of others are very often the only women in the room. I understand that the Minister and his officials as individuals possibly have nothing to do with this. However, I have to make the point.

The Minister's colleague referred to hidden fiscal space. I have been told by some that the hidden fiscal space potentially includes the fall in unemployment as reflected ultimately in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection's budget. If my memory serves me very well in respect of a lot of very difficult discussions, the unemployment figures are calculated by DPER in conjunction with social protection and are worked into the base. Unless there is something dramatically wrong in the estimate of the figures, I fail to understand how that can be calculated as some kind of hidden fiscal space.

This goes to the heart of what happened last year, when we had a joke meeting in the morning - with due respect to the officials - and by that afternoon there was €300 million to €400 million extra. Allied to this, given that this is broadly the third year of a very significant increase in self-employment, whether genuine or bogus, anybody involved in tax would expect a very significant rise in the profile of the tax receipts from the self-employed in November. I am sure the Minister and his officials are looking at those figures on a weekly basis at this point. What is his estimate for the surge in self-employed taxes come November? There is already quite a surge provided in the profile but my view, from all the data and just from talking to people in business, is that it is going to be very significant.

The Minister has already said he cannot talk about the budget and so on. However, if this is €300 million to €400 million, and I think it could be half a billion, the Minister needs to play fair with this committee if it is to have any purpose. That is important. Obviously, the issue relates to the so-called hidden fiscal space. I still do not understand what exactly the Minister means by it, hidden or visible.