Dr. Nat O'Connor:

One of the difficulties we face is that we are only halfway through the year and we do not yet know the end-of-year tax take. It is good at the moment but we do not know the end-of-year position. Likewise, we have seen cost overruns in the big spending Departments and the HSE. That may be additional to the deficit. It is difficult for us to indicate exactly what the adjustment should be in monetary terms. We think it should be 3% of GDP, which is the target. It should not be more than that. There is ample possibility in the various tax proposals we put forward to make as much of an adjustment as is necessary on the tax side, particularly by cutting tax relief but also by a higher rate of income tax.