Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy very much. It is not the case that there is a Government agreement in place regarding the scale of measures for this year and that money is going to be set aside for the future challenges, but we are not telling people; it is that we are working on all of this at the moment. The decisions will be made just before the budget and we will announce them at that point.

In response to the question on debt warehousing, the total amount of money at the end of August was €1.3 billion in VAT and €1.2 billion in employer PAYE. We have €2.5 billion in those two tax heads and a further €200 million across other taxes, bringing the total value to €2.7 billion. Some 78,000 individual businesses are currently availing of the option. As of now, I have received no advice or guidance that there is added difficulty at the moment in settling that. For businesses that may be looking in, which are concerned about their ability to pay us, I would advise them to engage fully with the Revenue Commissioners on it because they will collect the money on a case-by-case basis in a way that also respects the viability and continuation of employers and companies. That is why I have shied away from a single plan for all, because I accept there is a need for differentiated treatments depending on the status of various taxpayers. They are the figures at the moment. I hope in the time ahead Revenue will be in a position to collect the outstanding money.