Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Committee on Budgetary Oversight
Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed)
2:00 am
Dr. Robert Kelly:
Dr. O'Brien could come in again but personally, I would think it should be flexible and discretionary because the reality is there are periods when having more capital spending makes sense. Right now we are in one of those periods when we look at the capacity constraints in the economy. It is all about fitting that within a fixed envelope. Of course, when we think about it, we tend to focus very much on spending here. If we want to spend more, there is the possibility in that spending rule to raise taxes to offset that. It is a net spending rule.
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