Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will come to Brexit in a minute. This is about the core issue of presenting figures that are credible and very transparent. The Minister mentioned we would have to wait until budget 2020 to see about the Christmas bonus. However, he has presented numbers here for budget 2020 and indeed 2021 and 2022 in which there is unallocated spending of €700 million. That is the budget package we have if we want to reach the target of 0.4%. However, what is not clear, not written in any part of this document and not accounted for despite repeated criticisms from the IFAC and others, is that this figure is not real. As we heard last week at this committee, one thing that is certain is that Christmas happens every year and the Christmas bonus has to come out of that €700 million. Why does the Minister not factor that in and present a figure of just over €400 million, which would be more real and would have more credibility?