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

I welcome our guests and apologise for being late. If I repeat anything, they might cut me off straight away.

The headline conclusion of the council's pre-budget statement is that an overall package for next year of approximately €3.5 billion is appropriate, of which €800 million is left for previously unannounced decisions. According to the summer economic statement, that would give a headline general Government deficit of 0.1% and a structural deficit of 0.4%. There are advocates for going much further, including spending the extra €900 million under the expenditure benchmark and, indeed, spending the €500 million currently earmarked for the rainy day fund. My understanding is that would increase the deficit to 0.6% in headline terms and the structural deficit to 0.9%. If we did that, would we be outside the fiscal rules because there would be no improvement in the structural deficit of moving into the medium-term objective, MTO? Some advocate going beyond the €800 million, and others an extra €1.4 billion. Does this represent a breach of the rules?