Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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It seems strange. I agree that the Department of Finance has not been politicised in its forecasts and I accept that there is no way to get the forecasts right, as there are two many large unknowns, but the logic that we have heard for ages is that the austerity-only approach can work if we have sufficient growth. Obviously, there will be no growth in the country because we are taking everyone's money, but we are told not to worry because we will be able to export to the eurozone and the UK. Here the narrative seems to stop, but those countries are taking their citizens' money as well, so they will probably not be able to buy our stuff. It seems to have come as a great surprise that our trade partners, which are suffering fiscal consolidation challenges similar to our own, are not buying our exports any more than we are. That these two elements were not joined up surprises me.

Regarding a technical point on GDP growth, and while I have nothing to support it, it was put to me by an economist who examined the issue that some or all of the growth has been due to perfectly legal tax optimisation by firms. We referenced this matter when Deputy McDonald discussed the bizarre anomaly of a growth in real GNP of 3.4% versus a 0.9% growth in real GDP. Legal issues are involved, in that companies have reregistered as being domiciled in Ireland, presumably for tax reasons. Has the council examined how much, if any, of the growth is due to tax optimisation? Companies are here, at least partly, for tax reasons. In recessions, large and small companies focus heavily on tax optimisation because they cannot grow. It is a way to increase profits. Has an analysis been conducted or has the council seen evidence to suggest that a chunk of the growth is not reflected in the real economy but is instead legal tax optimisation by companies based in Ireland?