Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

The Minister stated that the budget he will introduce following the first 100 days will be counterbalanced. That is the key to this question. If we consider three of the proposals referred to in the programme for Government, namely, the cutting of the 13.5% VAT rate to 12%, the halving of the lower 8.5% employers' PRSI up to 2013 and the abolition of the airport travel tax, those measures will in a full year cost €779 million, based on Fine Gael's estimates - €327 million for VAT, €369 million for PRSI and €83 million for the airport travel tax. Given that two of those measures will extend to 2013, they will result in a reduction of the take by the Government of €1.8 billion up to the end of 2013. While the Government has announced it will introduce a jobs budget, this will include the offsetting of those two measures at a cost of €1.8 billion, and the other measures will add to that figure. Therefore, we are facing revenue raising measures in excess of €2 billion in regard to the resources that will be part of this jobs fund. In addition, the Exchequer returns are very sluggish at this time and if they continue on the same trajectory, we are probably facing a deficit of €900 million.

Is this the reality? Will we see a mini-budget from the Government that will entail a significant revenue raising exercise to offset or, as the Minister said, counterbalance the proposals outlined in the programme for Government and which will total in excess of €2 billion up to 2013?

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