Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Chief Government Information Officer (Revised)
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source
With the permission of the Chairman, I would like to ask a question on the budget deficit, which, for 2020, is expected to be 5.5% of GDP and approximately 10% of GNI. In many ways, this is an economic elephant in the room that we will be faced with when, God willing, the pandemic is subsiding. Has the Government developed any plan to reduce the budget deficit and the timescales that might apply for that reduction? Has the EU been in contact and have there been any discussions with it regarding the timescales to meet the fiscal rules? Has there been any discussion with the ECB in this regard? Can the Minister give us any information as to whether the reduction will be done through tax hikes, public spending cuts or economic growth? My preference would be economic growth. There is a massive train coming around the corner and I want to know the Minister's thinking on how we are going to avoid it.
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