Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If it is next year’s base, we are starting from a point at which that does not have to be provided for to achieve a neutral budget.

With regard to what the Minister terms a broadly neutral budget, providing the receipts and expenditure at midnight on Friday, three days before the budget is announced, is not sufficient. We need to change that system. Can the Minister give us his analysis, based on his best judgment, of what effect a no-change policy today will have on the 3% level? We will not hold him to this, because he has used rule-of-thumb analyses and has been forthright with information in the past. Will we come in at €200 million or €300 million below that figure, or will we be just close enough to it? Can he give us some indication that will help us prepare? We in the Opposition do not have the luxury of waiting till midnight on Friday to come up with an alternative budget within a few hours.

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