Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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I was in Brussels on Tuesday for an EMU conference and spoke to various officials and Members of the European Parliament, all of whom were very positive about the Department of Finance officials and I imagine about the people in this committee room. People are speaking of all of them with very high regard in Brussels at the political and bureaucratic levels. I do not know what they have done but they have obviously done a good job and have earned a lot of respect in Europe. I want to pass that back and congratulate them as I imagine they have all been working very hard for some time. It is great to see all their names for once rather than the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, being flanked by various officials. I thank Mr. Carrigan for his time and his preparation and for his statement. I have a variety of questions covering various areas. Perhaps the Chair will tell me when my time has expired.

On the European semester every member state has to submit a budget in October. Is that a draft budget that has to be submitted and does it have to come into line with the SPU or what would happen if, after the SPU was submitted in April, the budget came in with some serious changes in it?