Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate that. The data we are starting to see would lend us to think that is a likely scenario.

The council has been critical of the Government's plan for €0.5 billion in tax cuts. We know the cumulative effect of that over a four-year period. What it is planning to do will cost in the region of €5 billion in tax measures. I ask the witnesses to expand on that. Does the council believe that net tax cuts should be off the table, given the other pressures?

In its commentary, the council mentions a reduction in current spending if the Government was to deal with the tax cuts. Is the council suggesting that there is a difference between current and capital spending? There is a crisis in housing. The ESRI has called for a doubling in capital investment which is not what the Government has outlined in the SES. Does the council believe further capacity regarding capital spending as a catch-up programme is required to deal with the fact that houses have not been built in the numbers that were required over the past decade?