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

In our language, one cannot use it for current expenditure. It could be used for debt reduction and, in theory, it could be used for capital projects. However, because it would be likely to accrue to the Exchequer in one year, one’s capacity to spend would be caught in the fiscal rules. Then we would be back to the fiscal space. Accordingly, there would not be fiscal space to accommodate it. The amount one could spend on capital projects would be quite restricted. We are preparing a budget now with a fiscal space of slightly less than €1 billion. When one tries to fit big amounts of money into a small fiscal space, one can see the difficulty. If one does not get caught on the primary rule, one will get caught on the secondary rule.

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