John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The witnesses are getting used to my face after five years of this and vice versa. I find it more interesting that as time goes on. I am still just a layman when it comes to economics but I am always intrigued by the repetition and pattern of repeated themes. I am interested in some of that. Every so often, I surprise myself when I see some of the occasional thoughts I have replicated by the council, which makes me feel tremendously grand and important.

I thank the witnesses for the presentation. I am interested in reading some of the documentation. I will start with the chestnut of corporation tax. The witnesses mentioned again the reasons we need to be careful about it because it is volatile and not 100% dependable. The council has said this for five years and Mr. Barnes's predecessor made a point of saying it as well. I refer to what Seamus Coffey said because it is worth putting it on the record. He said that the whole idea behind the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is to institutionalise the memory of the crash. There is a thing about the boy who cried wolf about the council and the volatility of corporation tax. People looking on said:

Oh my God, but sure look at the figures. They've risen exponentially. Now the base rate is rising. It ought to result in a windfall.

I am of the same view as Mr. Barnes. I believe anything over and above what is anticipated in corporation tax should be put in a rainy day fund. The council is saying that and more. This leads to my first question because I did make this point to the Minister for Finance. He said that to have allocated the amount due to have been allocated to the rainy day fund in 2022 would have put undue pressure on the public finances given the situation we find ourselves in. What is the council's view on that?