Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's commitment to bring forward a paper to consider renewing the study and examining it afresh, considering changes since 2016, especially in the context of a possible crash-out Brexit. There is a contention that the fiscal space of €600 million in coming years could be eaten up by demographics alone. We need the Minister to clarify this as soon as possible.

I ask that a review would consider broadening the scope from the three Departments which the Minister is correct in saying are the most pertinent, but they are not the only ones which can be affected. He mentioned one and there may be others.

Will he tell the House if the figures were correct, and if not how far off they were over the last three years? If they were not correct, why was this? IFAC has argued the figure is far greater.

See this speech in context