Mr. Derek Moran:

The fiscal space will not be included in the stability programme update, SPU, next week. We will do that as part of the summer economic statement, SES. Part of the reason for that is to have the maximum amount of information so that we can get a number that is less volatile and less subject to those external data inputs that we need to actually make it work. We do take inputs in making those calculations from the European Commission. People like me and Mr. Watt who have to draw the strands of this together are never happy where there is uncertainty. Two years ago, and there was some confusion about this, when the Commission was setting the structural objective it was moving around all the time. We needed it to fix in the spring on a number that we could prepare a budget towards. For example, the deflator is the average of the spring and winter forecasts, so we interact with the Commission in the autumn trying to figure out its deflator so that we can apply it to the fiscal space measure. It will fix that in May which takes that uncertainty out of it. In many respects we produce a figure based on the data that we have at a point in time. To make that figure less volatile we will produce it in June as a part of the SES, when we have some of that additional external input.

Some of the changes float from the national accounts, which are only ever published in July and are agreed with EUROSTAT in terms of what the expenditure base was. That is not done until the end of September. There is a volatility built within it. We do our best to get it as stable as possible. Some of the changes will help with that.