John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. As members of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, we welcome the idea that the Minister is looking at how we can mitigate a reduction in corporation tax receipts at some stage in the future. We are pleased that the Minister is considering ways of stress-testing that. He would have received advice to that effect at this forum over the last two years. I understand that €14 billion of the €15.5 billion that has been received in windfall corporation tax has been spent on current expenditure. Those figures might be slightly wrong, but they are indicative of what the Minister has done. Does he accept the need for a prudence account, as recommended by IFAC? Will that recommendation be reflected in budget 2020? The Minister indicated in the October 2018 budget that he would set a trajectory for carbon tax in the October 2019 budget. Does setting a trajectory mean that budget 2020 will incorporate an actual fiscal measure in relation to carbon tax?