Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

That is a very interesting question, but we are a long way from the budget which will be announced early in December. The Deputy will recall from the memorandum of understanding that while the target that has been recited for 2012 has been €3.6 billion, there is another target not so frequently mentioned, which is achieving a deficit of 8.6%. We hope the means, a €3.6 billion adjustment, will achieve the 8.6% target, but there are many variables between now and December, which means that could move slightly but not by much. I said yesterday that the adjustment would be approximately €4 billion, but the target was €3.6 billion. In other words we must achieve a target of €3.6 billion but there is an issue of whether €3.6 billion is sufficient to bring the deficit below 8.6%. That is why I used the figure yesterday to indicate it is not as precise as people think and in the range of between €3.6 billion to €4 billion will get us in with the required deficit. Of course we will be discussing that with the troika as the year goes by. We will also be discussing the elements of the adjustment that will get us to those targets.

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