Dr. Róisín O'Sullivan:

It is also a question of the composition of the expenditure because the Government is boosting the overall level of expenditure. The Government always has choices and can choose to spend on something that will improve the productive capacity of the economy but that does not have to come at the cost of increasing expenditure overall.

Let us consider it over the business cycle as a whole. By spending at this point, the Government is making itself vulnerable to the next inevitable downturn. This means when the economy turns down, the Government will not have the cushion to be able to handle the shock. Therefore, we will end up in a situation where we are facing austerity at a time when the economy is hurting.

I am keen to go back to something Deputy Murphy said earlier in the interests of trying to help him warm up to us. It is my parting gift to the council. He describes the council as being designed to push austerity at all times. I take issue with that description. We are trying to push a fiscal framework to counteract tendencies to spend in good times. Those tendencies, in turn, leave us vulnerable to imposing austerity at a time when the economy is in a downturn. We are not in favour of austerity at all costs at all times.