Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am only in the early days of answering questions on this and already I am being interrupted by Deputy Broughan. I look forward to answering his questions in a moment but I will continue answering the questions put to me by Deputy O'Brien. For that reason, I do not believe that investment in precautionary measures will offset the need for a reserve fund in the future.

Regarding withdrawal criteria and their role in primary legislation, I believe they should be inserted in primary legislation because in the year-to-year effort of trying to form budgets, if we do not have the contribution to the rainy day fund set aside, it will undermine our ability to set up the rainy day fund in the first place.

In regard to putting it on a constitutional footing, I am not in favour of doing that. I believe it is a matter that should be dealt with exclusively by the Oireachtas. We have enough in our Constitution. It is up to the Oireachtas and the Government of the day to set up this fund and it is clearly open to any future Dáil to change its mind on the way that fund is set up.

Regarding deposit criteria and whether one of them could include an increase in particular tax heads or forms of tax collection, the answer to that question is "Yes". As part of the debate we will have on this, I would be willing to consider is whether we should examine the possibility of putting higher than expected levels of tax receipts in a fund like this one. However, that is one of the many matters we need to conclude in the coming weeks.