Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Government's fiscal target for 2015 has been well signalled. It is to bring the general Government deficit below 3% of GDP, in line with the commitments made by the country under the excessive deficit procedure. The budget to which the Government will agree in October will be designed to meet that target and will reflect the up-to-date economic and fiscal outlook.

The Deputy will be aware that the most recent official budgetary estimates are contained in the stability programme update published in April. At the time it was estimated that a consolidation package of €2 billion would be necessary next year to deliver a deficit of 2.9% of GDP. There have since been some positive developments which have been welcomed by all. The Exchequer returns for the first half of the year represent a solid performance in terms of tax and expenditure. Tax revenues are growing and, in overall terms, expenditure on public services is within the budget parameters set out last year. Last week the Central Statistics Office announced an upward revision of the level of GDP for last year. This will have a favourable impact on our deficit-to-GDP ratio for this year and next. The GDP growth reported for the first quarter of the year is also encouraging. We expect all of this to ease the level of fiscal adjustment needed to meet our 2015 deficit target. The precise impact is being assessed and will form a critical element of the Government's announcements on budget day.

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