Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First of all, the Government is investing on an unprecedented scale in respect of its commitments under the programme for Government and, in the context of Covid-19, in underpinning the wider economy with the various supports that we have put forward to protect employers, to keep businesses intact during the Covid-19 period, to provide the pandemic unemployment payment to employees who are unemployed and to keep employees tied to enterprises so that these businesses may be kept viable for the future. There has also been a variety of very significant expenditures in education, health and across all of the various Departments to underpin activities that are under way within those Departments. The stability programme update is not the budget but it gives a broad technical framework as to where we are in fulfilling our commitments in that regard.

They do not exclude further increases, for example, in subsequent budgets or prioritisation that Governments may take beyond that. There are two key dimensions here as far as I see it: one is the degree to which we emerge from Covid and evolve from the level of supports that we currently have in place. I think we can get to a reasonable position in terms of reducing deficits over time, as specific Covid expenditure falls away and the economy reboots and restarts. Substantial elements of the current expenditure profile are made up of Covid expenditure, both current and, in some respects, capital. There will be challenges but, on the other hand, the macroeconomic advice from the Commission, the ECB, the IMF and others is to maintain the stimulus position until we emerge stronger out of Covid-19 and reboot the economy. It is not all within the stability programme update. There are a number of key issues. The budget will be the key milestone. The national economic recovery plan that we announced, the national development plan, NDP, will have clear indicative programmes in the coming years.