Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The serious deterioration could be looked at. Is it a serious deterioration based on the projections in respect of the public finances, which is one thing, or a serious deterioration in the public finances, which is another? We could be in a situation where we are in surplus but we actually do not want to put this money into the fund because legislatively it is locked away until 2040, and we just do not know what is down the road. Is it serious deterioration in terms of the projections, or in terms of the actual public finances? Some would argue that there is no serious deterioration if we are looking at a balanced budget.