Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his response. In assessing the provisions of the fiscal compact, this is a key question that needs to be answered. The economic and fiscal outlook document the Minister published along with the budget in December clearly sets out that nominal GDP for Ireland is forecast to be €179 billion in 2015. The Department of Finance estimates that the structural deficit for Ireland at that time will be 3.7% of GDP or €6.6 billion in nominal cash terms. This is based on everything going according to plan between now and 2015 in terms of the growth rates and the fiscal consolidation between now and then.

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