Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy, as usual, is completely wrong. The deficit we set for this year was a demanding deficit to reach the target of below 3% of GDP. When we framed the budget for 2015 in October of last year, it provided for a deficit of 2.9%. In the spring, we reduced that to have an even tighter deficit of 2.7%. The actual outturn, including the additional expenditure that I have outlined, will be a deficit of 2.1%. Nobody in their wildest imaginations four years ago would have thought that by the end of 2015 we would have a deficit of 2.1% of GDP. In fact, we are outperforming other much more developed economies that have not gone through the economic crisis that we have had. It is absolutely prudent to keep a tight focus on reducing the deficit to 2.1% but at the same time to respond to pressures in our economy to provide decent funding levels to health and other areas, such as education, that the Deputy would demand in normal circumstances.

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