Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, that would make sense and we have been operating contingency funds for the last number of years. On the core expenditure, what would be available is likely to be €1.6 billion, but Dr. McDonnell is saying that it will not be enough because he has called for at least the protection of social assistance increases, which would cost €1.7 billion. That means one is not planning any additional homes, no more investment in hospitals, no additional beds, nothing in terms of education, nothing extra in terms of roads that are not set out in the national development plan, NDP, and so on, and there are all these other pressures. One-offs will deal with one-offs but in terms of inflation, and we are unlikely to have deflation, these costs are baked in. How big does the package need to become in terms of core expenditure?