Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In Sinn Féin's response to the spring statement, it accused us both of trying to buy the election and of being parsimonious in our expenditure. Sinn Féin cannot have it both ways, although it tries. We have been under pressure to provide a balanced budget. We have reduced the deficit in actual terms from 30% of GDP in 2010, an underlying deficit of 11%, to 2.3% projected for this year. Given that we are moving into the preventative arm, we have more flexibility.

We have said there will be space of approximately €1.5 billion next year which will be divided in a 50:50 expenditure and tax reduction process. Beyond this, we obviously have to look at how the economy will grow. We have only given indicative figures for expenditure on the current side to cater for inflation and demographics. We will see what real capacity we have closer to the budget in October.

See this speech in context