Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will now open a second round of questioning and ask Deputies who would like to come in to put up their hands. While Deputies are organising themselves, I will ask a quick question.

The Minister spoke a little bit about the challenge of writing the stability programme update, SPU, this year because of the degree of uncertainty and the dynamic situation in which we are living, including the reliance on vaccines, etc. My question relates, selfishly, to the operation of this committee but also to other fiscal bodies that will be looking at what the Government is doing. One of the matters that has been raised at our committee is an issue around scenario analysis and planning. We are projecting a certain amount of growth but, obviously, we are not entirely sure whether that growth will be as we project it. We are not entirely sure, even with pronouncements from President Biden on tax changes, what companies will do in terms of corporation tax. We do not understand growth in the medium term or what either higher or lower revenues will do to our decision-making processes. In terms of oversight for committees such as this, fiscal bodies or the work of the Minister, is there scope to improve scenario analysis or planning for the Government and those of us who are reading reports?