Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses are all very welcome and I thank them for their presentation. In its statement and in a range of different interventions it has made recently, the Central Bank seems to be saying that the spending and tax plans set out by Government both in the summer economic statement and, subsequently, in the more concerning pathway it put into the public domain post the summer economic statement in April are expansionary. If they are expansionary, logic suggests that they will contribute to inflation. Has the Central Bank at any point calculated or assessed the portion of the inflation we are likely to experience next year - the witnesses said that inflation is expected to be at 3.2% next year - can be accounted for by the spending plans as presented at the moment - let us see what happens on budget day - and the increased expenditure of the expansionary budget that the Government seems to be on a trajectory towards?