Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the absence of Deputy Gerry Adams. I would like to be associated with the Taoiseach's Christmas good wishes to the staff and Members of the House. We are all looking forward to the Christmas break and coming back reinvigorated, renewed and ready for the fight next year.

I note that this European Council meeting will be primarily focused on economic and social policy. We are told on almost a daily basis that we have regained our economic sovereignty. Yet, in replies to my party, the Minster for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, have made it clear that new EU rules will dictate our budgets for a very long time to come. The next budget will have to be agreed against the backdrop of the so-called expenditure benchmark. This is essentially part of the preventive arm of the EU rule book.

In a reply to my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, gave an indicative figure of a permissible expenditure increase of only €400 million. Even that figure is dependent on a high growth figure, which unfortunately failed to materialise in the last quarter. We know that the Taoiseach has committed the Government to decreasing the top rate of tax next year. That decrease will also be taken into account when adding up the €400 million .

The Minister, Deputy Howlin, has noted that:

beyond 2015, there will be a number of expenditure pressures emerging over the coming years, most notably those related to demographics and their impact on the social protection, health and education sectors. The expenditure ceilings for 2016 and 2017 contained in the Comprehensive Expenditure Report provide for expenditure increases in these areas to accommodate these demographic pressures.

The Taoiseach can correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that because of the expenditure benchmark, next year the Government will have only €400 million to play around with and has already committed to the new tax cut for the better off. The difficulty is that more children are going to school, there are more patients in hospital, longer queues, more patients on trolleys and more pensioners living alone and having to survive on a basic income.

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