Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

The Deputy is correct. All these matters are estimates and projections, and they are the best possible estimate based on the facts, but things are changing rapidly. Things are changing rapidly internationally and therefore it is not possible to predict; but to get back to the Deputy's original question on sustainability, I believe our position is now sustainable. Some people make false comparisons with Greece. The figures the Deputy has quoted see the debt peaking out in 2013 at 118%. The equivalent figure for Greece is 157%, and that is before its more recent crisis, and it is tending upwards all the time. We are not in the same category as Greece. We are not in the same category as Portugal, and people who talk about sustainability should remember that we are going into surplus on the balance of payments and any country that has a balance of payments surplus is not insolvent when the whole figure is taken together.

We are giving the Deputy the best figures available. We will continue to give him the fullest possible information but we will also point out to him the assumptions on which they are based and as the assumptions vary, things change. For example, the fiscal figures for April, which were published yesterday evening or today, would show that the tax profile is beyond the Deputy's budget estimate for December and expenditure is below the budget estimate for expenditure. Therefore, for the first four months of the year things are better than on track and we hope that continues for the rest of the year but it does vary and we will not have any degree of certainty until we get the June figures. It will be early July, therefore, before I would be firm on figures but so far so good.

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