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

What I am saying is the case. I said two things: first, that the Deputy was repeating the assertions of others, which he is and as I have acknowledged, and, second, that in the budget I have delivered in any given year I have either met or exceeded any target I have set in that year from a surplus or deficit point of view.

That has been the case in my two budgets as Minister for Finance. To return to the tone of all this, the Deputy is referring to institutions, one of which is independent of me, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, which has raised a particular issue for 2018 on unplanned expenditure which mostly centres on what happens in the Department of Health. That change in the Department of Health was very different from the previous two years when I was involved in that issue, and I acknowledge that in 2019 we need to find ways of doing it differently. That is what I am working to. However, I stand by the point I made in terms of the rate of expenditure growth and the combined impact of tax and social welfare packages. They are of a different magnitude to where we were at this point in the proceeding economic cycle.