Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Is the Deputy a social democrat now in his latest reincarnation? On my way from Wexford I have seen posters about retaining a swimming pool. The Garda station was his campaign last year. The Deputy opposes every expenditure reduction, so I am interested as to whether he is academically interested in reducing spending or if it is an actual interest.

In each of the past four and half years of this Government, we have set out our deficit targets and fiscal strategy to achieve those. We have achieved them all comfortably. The advice we had last year from IFAC and others was that we needed a more robust reduction in expenditure than we provided. Last year, we did not reduce expenditure but rather increased it slightly, as the Deputy knows. We will still comfortably meet the deficit target. The target set out in the budget of 2.7% has been revised to 2.3%, as the Deputy knows, in the spring economic statement. Assuming that the budgetary parameters do not alter between now and August, we will set out what will happen next year. After that, each Government will make a determination of the split, for example, between taxation and expenditure. That will be a matter to be debated in the election.

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