Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to use my priority question month on month just to try to elicit simple information. We have the legal parameters under the fiscal rules which we know is the fiscal space. That was identified as €3.2 billion. Government decisions on whether to use all of the fiscal space are a separate matter and I am not asking the Minister about policy choices at this point in time. I am just looking at what is legally permissible. The summer economic statement spelled out clearly that €3.2 billion was the amount of money available for budget 2019. We are mindful that this could change and that the summer economic statement could increase or, indeed, decrease that sum. According to the data we have as of today, €3.2 billion is available. An impression has been given by the Minister, deliberately in my view, to dampen expectations in the run up to the budget. That impression is that most, if not all, of this money has already been committed. The Minister has provided replies to me through both the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which are aligned, that of the €3.2 billion of fiscal space, €1.4 billion was pre-committed. That means there is €1.8 billion available for discretionary spending in budget 2019. That is what is legally allowed according to the current data, albeit we are mindful such data may change in the summer economic statement. Can the Minister confirm that is case? Are we looking at fiscal space identified last year of €3.2 billion, of which €1.4 billion has been committed in the interim, leaving us with a discretionary amount of €1.8 billion, which may change in future?

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