Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to welcome the Minister and Mr. McCarthy. I will be brief given the circumstances. I will just ask a few key questions. The Government's objective of meeting the medium-term objective, MTO, for 2018 of a structural deficit of not greater than 0.5% is now expected to be missed, according to the stability programme update. Back in the budget of last October, it was expected that the structural deficit would come in at 0.5% in 2018, but the Minister is now forecasting 0.9%. What are the consequences, if any, of missing that medium-term objective in 2018?

In regard to the risks the Minister has identified on pages 35 and 36, I am curious as to why the risks posed by the ongoing efforts at EU-level to introduce changes to corporate taxation are excluded. I refer to the proposals around digital taxation and common consolidated corporate tax. The Minister's Department has assessments about potentially very negative consequences for Ireland, so why are they not listed?

Does the Minister accept the reference in yesterday's IMF report, the global economic outlook report, that a quarter of Ireland's growth last year came from the sale of iPhones? Does the Minister accept that and what are the consequences of that?

Will the Minister confirm when the summer economic statement will be published? Will we then have the update on the estimate of fiscal space that will be available in budget 2019?