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

The EU supports the principle of having a fiscal buffer. It supports a rainy day fund. The context of Brexit has been raised, understandably. It is pretty clear under section 6 of the Bill that if Brexit goes badly wrong over the coming weeks, then the money is not going to be paid into the fund. That is the reality. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has made that clear. If we are in an emergency situation, then there is provision under section 6 of the Bill not to pay the money into any the rainy day fund. Any public money can be used for a bank bailout. Any tax one pays, be it corporation tax, VAT or income tax, or any money can be potentially used for a bailout to support a financial system, whatever way one wants to phrase it. The circumstances in which these funds can be used are clearly set out in section 7 of the Bill, which we will come to in a moment, one of which is set out in section 1(a) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2012, which reads "a period during which an unusual event outside of the control of the State, has a major impact on the financial position of the general government or a period of severe economic downturn."

The suggestion that Ireland will suffer infringement proceedings from the European Union for drawing down the resources in the fund is not realistic. The EU, the OECD and all the major international organisations support having a fund of this nature to cater for the potential of things that could go wrong.