Mr. Carlos Martínez Mongay:

The view of the Commission is that the budgetary plans presented by Ireland concerning 2017, and therefore the projected budget, are broadly compliant with the Stability and Growth Pact. That is the position of the Commission. If the committee allows it, I would like to refer to an aspect of this communication that is perhaps even more important in the case of Ireland. It is about the composition of the adjustment and the quality of public finances. In those cases in which there is no need for an expansionary fiscal policy simply because the country is growing above potential, the Commission is saying that the country has to, on the one hand, reduce possible distortional effects of taxation which cast an impact on potential growth. On the other hand, the country should enhance the composition of expenditures to make this composition more growth-friendly. We should invest in more physical infrastructure and human knowledge capital. That is what the Commission is also recommending for countries like Ireland in which growth is already above potential. The idea is to increase potential but not to go for a cyclical expansion because the cycle of the cyclical position is already-----