Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, we listened as the Fiscal Advisory Council stated that we must plough ahead with a further €2 billion of adjustments in this year's budget, on the basis that economic growth is uncertain and the national debt is alarmingly high. The idea of a further cut of €2 billion will strike terror into those who have already been ravaged by years of austerity.

With the national debt figure standing at €203 billion, it is the understatement of the century to say it is alarmingly high. It is very much the elephant in the room and until it is addressed, we will constantly be putting out budgetary fires.

We are now into budget season, with departmental meetings under way and groups publishing pre-budget submissions. The Taoiseach will dismiss many of those submissions as fantasy economics. Talking of fantasy economics, my attention is drawn to one of the commitments he gave in the lead-up to this year's local elections, namely, that Fine Gael councillors would reduce the property tax by 15%. Given what the Government has done with the Local Government Fund, is that commitment actually deliverable? There are three main streams of local authority funding. The first of these, the general purposes grant, has been reduced from €999 million six years ago to €275 million in 2014, notwithstanding the subvention of €490 million paid to Irish Water last year. The fund has been decimated. The next stream is commercial rates, and Fine Gael gave a pre-election commitment either to keep those rates static or reduce them.

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