Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As soon as the fiscal policy plan is approved by the Government, it will be published. It is at an advanced stage of preparation and the Government has still to discuss, finalise and approve it. We will do that as soon as it is possible.

I said here before that I was hoping it might be available for publication, assuming approval will be given, at the beginning of next week. However, I cannot anticipate the outcome of discussions at Cabinet that must take place. We are working to an indicative schedule and we are doing the best we can. Obviously, the plans have to be finalised. There has been much budgetary debate, which I facilitated, to get to a position where we can discuss the four-year plan in detail. That has taken somewhat more time than expected but much progress has been made.

The authorities will obviously use all the powers available to them to obtain lawfully any information they regard as germane or helpful to the investigation in question.

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