Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Minister will agree there is no harm in operating a modest but manageable deficit, especially if it is focused on addressing some of our infrastructural deficits, especially around housing. I look forward to the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform setting out the quantum of money and resources that will be made available to housing in the context of the forthcoming Housing for All document.

I wish to ask one other question on the EU fiscal rules, which were touched on to a degree by Deputy Canney. Would the Minister for Finance agree with the European Fiscal Board when it said that a profound reform of the Stability and Growth Pact is a must? My view and that of the Labour Party's political grouping in the European Parliament is that the EU fiscal rules are to a degree anachronistic. They belong to another time and need to be reformed. In fact, these rules could end up holding European economic development back if we are to stick with them and not reform them. The Minister might apprise the members of any developments, in a European context, around any possible reform of those rules over the next couple of years.