Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to go back to some of the comments the Minister made. We need to get away from the boom-bust cycle and become like Switzerland. This is how I would like to see the country go, whereby we constantly invest in infrastructure and build housing but at sustainable levels. This comes back to one of my questions on something the Minister mentioned earlier. I refer to five-year forecasts and looking further ahead. We cannot predict the rest of this year because of the uncertainty in the world market. It is still a very good exercise to do five- and ten-year forecasts because they throw up things we would not otherwise think about. For instance, there are the impacts of demographics and health. These will change. The reason for doing it, apart from realising what will happen in five, ten or 15 years' time, is that we can start to make changes now in order that we do not have sudden shocks to our spending down the line. It can be a gradual process. The Minister more or less stated that he agrees with this. He is welcome to comment.

Slightly allied to this, I have expressed concerns previously about the accuracy of the data relating to corporation tax receipts. These receipts are also impossible to predict. The Minister answered my question regarding there being more focus on, or a new focus on, different ways of accurately forecasting corporation tax receipts. Will he comment on long-term forecasting? I know it is not something that would be cast in stone and would be constantly evolving, but it would tell us things that would inform us on how to run our budgets in the short term.