Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 19 June 2024
Committee on Budgetary Oversight
Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council
5:30 pm
Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I hear what Professor McMahon is saying. We will move on from this point with regard to core and non-core spending, although I would argue that there is a rationale for windfall capital expenditure. I have argued for years that we need a catch-up programme for capital expenditure. Itemising it as a catch-up programme would create a baseline of what we believe is the permanent capital programme over a period of time. We have the issue of what is the additionality of a catch-up programme. There is a rationale for it and it is about how it is presented. I do not think it is fiscal gimmickry. Far be it for me to defend the Government as it has only done a pittance of what I would do with regard to its windfall capital programme.