Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 September 2017

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018: Nevin Economic Research Institute, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Irish Tax Institute and Chambers Ireland

9:00 am

Dr. Tom McDonnell:

Yes, essentially. It depends on what the level of capital spending was in previous years. It does not necessarily work out as cleanly as that. As a broad principle, that is a good way to describe it. Essentially, €800 million in tax cuts would have an €800 million fiscal cost in the first full year. A similar approach to capital spending would take up €200 million in the first year. That would be €400 million of fiscal space - €200 million in each year. That would involve a gross figure of €600 million by the third year and €800 million by the fourth year. This would essentially involve taking €200 million out of budget 2018, €200 million out of budget 2019 and-----