Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Many people have said that the report has been scathing of the Government's budgetary policy. There is language in these reports that we have not seen in previous reports. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council talks about non-realistic projections, a lack of prudence and repeating the mistakes of the past and it draws conclusions around the stamp duty issue and suggests that at that time it was taking some of the heat out of the economy while what it happening at this point is not. It makes it clear that the budgetary projections are not credible into the future.

Does IFAC expect anything to change or will we just have a nice note back from the Minister, thanking the council for its views? What does IFAC expect out of this? The council has put an enormous amount of work into this and the language therein is very strong. What would the council like to see happening, given that the Finance Bill has already been passed? All that is left to deal with is the social welfare Bill. The most significant point about that Bill is that it does not budget for €250 million in expenditure that is likely to happen next year.