Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses said that the electorate might get poor fiscal policy, which is not to say that it deserves or wants it. Deputy Lahart may have been correct in saying this is similar to the soft landing point in the economic cycle. The difference now, apart from voices on the Opposition benches and an over-reliance on regulators, is that we have at our disposal EU fiscal rules, departmental ceilings and the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. We still have volatile tax returns, however, and it appears that the figures being presented by the Government do not take account of the potential for a crash-out Brexit.

According to the advisory council, Government projections are not credible and are irresponsible. I will deal with capital spending as I do not wish to rehash the many questions that arise on other issues. The council correctly states that capital spending should be provided for on an ongoing and properly costed basis, the benefits of capital projects should be analysed and funding for their delivery should be provided into the future. As has been recently exposed, none of this occurred in the cases of the national children's hospital and the national broadband plan. The Government is now faced with the predicament that it must find an additional €1.5 billion in the years to 2027 under the contract it is considering signing. In addition, a further €477 million may be required between 2019 and 2022, giving a total of almost €2 billion.

There is an overspend of €447 million in total in the children's hospital, €99 million of which is being provided for this year, leaving €116 million per annum to be found over the next three years.

That amounts to €2.35 billion. The Secretary General in the Department says that in order to meet that demand, the projects in the national development plan may well have to be forgone across a wide range areas that are pertinent and demanding of any Government, as to education and health, to name but a few such areas. The Minister and the Government disagree - I do not want to be political but I must be factual - and say that this will not be the effect, and that these funds will come from future revenues.

Does the Fiscal Advisory Council believe that this is credible? Is it not the case that these funds must come from either tax increases, new borrowings, or from current expenditure? If the FAC rightly says that the country and electorate do not deserve poor fiscal policy, the least they deserve is the truth and they do not deserve fairy economics.