Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

The figure from the Department of Finance is not comparable with that of the Central Bank because our projections were made in April, when the situation was entirely different. Clearly, we will also be making a downward adjustment to our projection because the countries to which we export are not growing as fast as anticipated. We will have to mark down our growth given that it is export led. The general rule of thumb is that a 1% reduction in GDP translates into about €800 million in revenue, although I ask Deputies not to tie me to the last euro in terms of accuracy because that is a rough but useful mnemonic for calculations. As Deputy Doherty will agree, however, it is a big blow.

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