Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Every decision that was made in advance of the budgets of the last three years, as delivered by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and me, was aimed at repairing an economy that was calamitously broken. Objectively, we have done a good job in building a sustainable platform for future expenditure and the future well-being of the Irish people. On each occasion, we made decisions that were the least worst options available and would have the least worst impact on the most vulnerable people. We have done that by protecting core social welfare rates, for example. I am glad that these determined and difficult decisions have led us to have a platform now. As I am not a fortune teller, I do not know what will happen in the next number of months. However, I am confident that we will not require budgetary adjustments of anything like the order specified in the most recent medium-term economic forecast to reach the target of a deficit-to-GDP ratio of less than 3% of GDP. We will spell out the details of that when all the data is available towards the budget day in October.

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