Mr. John McCarthy:

These discussions take place all the time. The Deputy will probably have seen some of the analysis that is published by the Department every July, the so-called tax strategy group papers. They go through all the options on taxation. I think last year's set of papers did have something on wealth taxes. The Deputy might look into that; I cannot give her the specifics right now.

Another point I would make in respect of the Deputy's question is that we expect to achieve a balanced budget this year. This is to achieve the MTO and once we achieve the MTO, there is a significant amount of fiscal space that opens up for next year as the growth rate of expenditure then moves in line with the potential growth rate of the economy. In nominal terms, that is about 4.5% or 5% in Ireland. If the Deputy looks at our publications, we have been quite clear that there is quite a lot of fiscal space available for 2019.

If we look at the budget and the summer economic statement, the figures are there in black in white. How the Government decides to allocate that will be done on the basis of the discussions over the summer, the expenditure discussions and so forth, although that is a matter for the Minister. The point I would make is that we have outlined that once we get to the MTO, there is a lot of fiscal space subsequently.