Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Forecasts for Budget 2017: Department of Finance

11:00 am

Mr. John McCarthy:

It would be significantly larger, yes. However, there are legal issues here in that all Ministers, back in 2002, signed up to the harmonised framework for producing potential output. I accept the Deputy's point in principle but legally we are bound in to this harmonised approach. What the Deputy says, however, makes sense.