Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy should have known that, with a deficit of 2.4% and every decimal point representing approximately €200 million, we were down €1 billion more than we expected. He is asking me why I did not announce that in advance. First, I did not have an accurate estimate of what growth might be. We were nervous to insert high growth figures. They were checked, checked and checked again. Eventually, we built a budget based on 4.7%. Had I told the Deputy in June or July that the economy would grow by 4.7% in 2014, though, he would not have believed me. That is the base for the following year.