Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

The Deputy is absolutely right. The commitment to medium-term economic stability implies that one has at least five year forecasts. That is a good practical medium-term horizon. One also needs those long-term exercises. The EU goes out to 2050 or 2060, but that those two exercises go in parallel.

One thing that is of concern is that even within the horizon out to 2021, if one looks at what is implied for spending in the later years, spending growth slows quite a lot. That is going to be very hard to reconcile if the Government's forecasts turn out to be right and the economy is still doing well, employment is high and wages are going up. It is going to very hard to meet that. That shows the relevance of these medium-term forecasts. People need to look across the whole thing and ask whether it makes sense. There is a concern about spending growth in those later years.