Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

Let me make two points. First, in our view the ambitious plans around Sláintecare as a part of the programme for Government can be afforded if the right fiscal decisions are taken. In many ways, the programme released yesterday is welcome, in particular, the plan to broadly balance the budget by 2025. This is necessary to reduce debt in the way it needs to be reduced given the high and risky level it will be at. These things are affordable, but there are big question marks around how it is going to be financed. This is a major shift in the way healthcare is provided. It is not entirely clear at this point, and the agreement pushes it down the track a bit, how that is going to be financed when big commitments have been made around other aspects of spending, for example, welfare and tax, and particularly not to raise income tax rates which account for approximately one third of taxation. It can be afforded but it is not very clear. There are big question marks in this plan around how that is going to be done.

A central idea of stimulus measures is that one can spend a lot, but it needs to be temporary. That means once the crisis has passed, one can bring it back down and the public finances can be rebalanced and restabilised.