Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First of all, there is no row-back. What I have said this morning in reply to the Deputy's question is absolutely consistent with what I have done in the past in terms of USC - capping it at €70,000 and ensuring that high earners do not have extravagant benefits. They are proportionate benefits to people with an income of €70,000, and something similar will be proposed when we abolish USC completely. It will be replaced by some form of clawback for high earners.

Second, the Deputy switched to the issue of investment. A lot of what was in the spring statement has changed because circumstances have improved. Even though it is not 12 months ago, the fundamental statistics are now much better than they were at the time of the spring statement. Looking forward, it now looks as though we are going to balance the budget in 2017. That, in effect, means that we will not be assigning funds to reduce a deficit because we will not have a deficit.

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