John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. There are two sides to this coin. We obviously cannot continue to spend the full amount we claim in corporation tax, because the Minister clearly recognises it is not a sustainable source of tax. We cannot build an economy on that in the long term. That presents a short-term issue. What will the Minister's approach to the next budget be? Up to now we have been using our corporation tax revenue for current or capital expenditure. We have seen significant overruns. I really do not want to get into the detail of the national children's hospital, but we cannot have overruns like that if we are trying to cut back on capital spending. Finally, the Minister mentioned putting funding into the rainy day fund for Brexit, which is something I support. The following question must be asked. Should more of the surplus accounted for by corporation tax revenue that is considered to be in excess be put into that fund to address the inevitable cyclical change?

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