Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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For the sake of propriety and good parliamentary practice, I ask members to desist from making random value judgments based on speculation. I will desist from using the term, "uninformed speculation". People in employment in this country are very concerned about the current debate and speculation is not positive. This committee has taken on the task of examining this issue. I ask that members ask questions rather than making value judgments so that we have the information before determinations are made.

I have one matter which I wish to bring to the attention of the Minister. I wrote to the Minister last December and I received a response at the end of March. One of the difficulties with the Estimates process is that we are operating on a projected and speculative basis. This is certainly the case with regard to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We must ensure that the projections and targets are available online on a quarterly basis so that we do not end up with balloon payments in quarter four and the type of savings that cause difficulties. The Minister's Department operates on a different basis in that it makes predictions but if those predictions are out of kilter, expenditure difficulties arise. In that regard I ask if the Minister could give the committee an overview of current taxation revenue. Are the VAT returns and other returns on target? Given that the budget will be announced in October and there has always been a distortion of the VAT returns in the December market because the budget has an impact on consumer sentiment over Christmas, is there a potential for better VAT returns in the final quarter of this year?