Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

People will be disappointed the Minister is unable to commit to the multi-annual framework, which contained these figures and was set out and published after the last budget. Does the Minister agree that one of the preconditions set out on page 16 of the national development plan was that the Government would maintain the growth in day-to-day spending in line with economic growth? The Minister and his predecessors have manifestly failed to do this. They have allowed spending in the past two years to grow 65% faster than was set out as a precondition in the NDP and this has cost €4 billion. Does the Minister accept the Government has undermined its ability to deliver the NDP by building huge current spending programmes on the back of property taxes that were plainly unsustainable?

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