Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Are the Government's commitments to the EU couched in terms of the budget deficit or what is commonly known as the structural deficit, which makes allowances for the stage of the business cycle one is at? What information has changed which led the Taoiseach to withdraw from the commitment he was very categorical about in early March that 9.5% of GDP would be the borrowing target?

Will the Minister give the House more information than we have seen to date so that we can have an intelligent discussion about the options that face us? Will we see what happened on the last occasion, where the Minister came in with budgetary announcements and promptly had to do U-turns on many of them because they had not been subject to proper scrutiny or teased out?

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