Dr. Eddie Casey:

I have a general point on welcoming the committee's interest in obtaining relevant information before the budget, which we discussed in advance of this meeting. It is a great idea for the committee to consider such matters. There are three aspects on which it should be seeking information regarding the budget. Better, clearer costings on the spending side are desirable. Every year, just before the budget, we get a ready reckoner from the Revenue Commissioners. It gives a really clear sense of how much a 1% increase in the standard income tax rate and other such measures would raise. On the spending side, however, there is much less information. I am aware that people get this information in dribs and drabs from the Department but it would be better to have something along the lines of what the Revenue Commissioners produce, which is very transparent.

A second point concerns the walk. We have mentioned the so-called walk from the Exchequer spending, which is what many of the budgetary publications have focused on traditionally, and the question of how one gets from there to the extra fifth of spending in general government terms, which is the wider measure we are interested in. That expenditure should be presented in gross terms. It is really useful for us, members and others to see in very clear gross terms what exactly is being spent and the revenue being taken in. All we have at the moment is a net picture, which does not allow us to understand the goings-on.

On a somewhat self-promotional point, the standstill scenario we develop at council level is a really useful tool for understanding what is happening the budget from year to year. We are aware that there will be major increases in spending linked to public services already provided and the public service payments and social welfare payments that we provide. It is a question of how much extra the Government would be spending on those types of categories if it were to do nothing in its budget in 2021. The question is linked to determining the demographic changes and the general rates of inflation in the economy. If prices and wages were rising, what would it cost to increase public sector wages in line with those increases, and how much would it cost to raise social welfare and pension payments in line with them? If that clear picture were provided by the Departments, we would have a really good sense of how much space would be left over for new measures given general growth in the economy.