Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ministers and their staff for making themselves available. I thank the Ministers for their detailed presentations and responses to various questions.

We acknowledge that we remain on course to meet the summer economic statement commitments in the budget package as a whole. We acknowledge the difficulties associated with ongoing discussions around the health budget and the classifications necessary regarding spends. We also appreciate the provision for public pay talks and what may arise from that. We respect that it would be ill-advised to quantify any funds associated with those deliberations.

I am particularly glad that we have accepted in all parties and none apart from the likes of Deputy Boyd Barrett who acknowledged that we cannot spend in perpetuity regarding windfall gained taxes.