Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I understand the Government is publishing the stability programme update this afternoon at 3 p.m. I presume it is being done right now. There was a practice introduced by the previous Government. The then Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, and I introduced what we called the spring economic statement. Last year, it became the summer economic statement. When will the spring or summer economic statement be published and when will the amount of fiscal space available for October's budget be known? The objective was we would have a clear indication of the fiscal space available at this time of the year so we could have a proper debate. It is doubly the case when we have an Oireachtas committee that is supposed to scope out the options for Government and democratise the Government process. Is that still to be the case? I understand from reading the Sunday Independent, the Government plans to change its budgetary stance and move away from tax cuts towards funding what is described as working family social PRSI benefits such as childcare, parental leave and so on. Is that true? Will we have press releases determining these matters or will we have a debate on options within the Oireachtas as we envisaged? A new schools capital programme was published last week to deal with schools in population-pressure zones which caused great consternation to schools that have been waiting many years for very significant refurbishment and replacement schools. Will there be an additional capital plan to deal with that?

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