John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for their public service and their willingness to attend here regularly, which is appreciated by the Committee on Budgetary Oversight. Some of the questions I had have already been addressed by the Minister but I have some short and sweet questions.

The Minister stated in his opening remarks that we have a well-managed and that our public finances have been placed on a sustainable trajectory. He also mentioned the words "sustainable" and "sustainability" a number of times in his speech. On Brexit, the Minister stated the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union would have a detrimental impact on our economy and public finances in whatever form it takes. In the preparation for that, I have often said that I am not an economist, but like the Minister, I am a keen political observer. Brexit has been characterised by chaos for the last two years. There does not seem to be any reason to believe that it will not be characterised by anything else but chaos in the short term.

Colm McCarthy and Stephen Kinsella were before the committee and I will roughly paraphrase what they said. I hope I am not misquoting them and I do not wish to be inaccurate but the Chairman can tell me if I am. When asked what they would do if they were in the Minister's position, they said they would be adopting a one budgetary stance and not two bugetary stance. That would be in the expectation of a disorderly Brexit. As Minister pointed out, it is a question of which form of disorderly it is going to be.

The Minister is putting much faith, which I am not sure anybody else has, in having some kind of a clearer position by September or early October on where the United Kingdom stands. How does the Minister substantiate that position?