Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My question is in a similar vein to Deputy Doherty's and the Minister has provided some clarity in their exchange on the last question. We should not have to put down priority questions in order to elicit this information. The Minister was before the Budgetary Oversight Committee on 18 April and committed to coming back to the committee with answers to some of those outstanding questions. Can the Minister clarify something for me in relation to demographic costs? We were told last year that the net fiscal space at that time had already factored in demographic costs of €500 million. Is the Minister saying now that the Department has identified an additional €400 million of demographic costs for 2019 of which it was not aware this time last year?

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