Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies very much for their questions. I will speak first on the most recent report of IFAC. It is essential that Government take on board the advice of IFAC. The Opposition should also do so. Among the recommendations and findings the council put to us is a concern about the surge in corporation profit tax. We were only taking in approximately €3 billion a few years ago. That figure has risen to €10 billion. Some of that money may be unsustainable. I will come to that a little later. The council also expressed concern about in-year increases in spending, particularly in the area of health. We are doing our best to work with the new CEO and board of the HSE to rein in such spending this year in order that any overrun will be much lower than in previous years. When we talk about reining in health spending, it is important to explain what that means. It means only spending €1 billion more this year than last year. It means keeping the increase in spending to between 5% and 6%. That is what we are trying to do. It is often represented as cutbacks, but that is not what is happening at all.

The council also recommended that we run a bigger budget surplus. As we all know, that would mean higher taxes, less spending, or a combination of the two. The Government does not agree with that recommendation. We believe that our projected surplus for this year, which is approximately 0.3% or 0.4% of GDP, strikes the right balance between what is needed in extra spending on infrastructure and public services and the goal of running a surplus. Ireland is one of the few countries in the western world that is running a surplus. I am not sure which parties in the House are advocating higher taxes, less spending, or both, so I am not sure if any party agrees with that particular recommendation from IFAC.

The chairman of IFAC expressed an interest in reviewing the fiscal plans of Opposition parties, which is something similar councils in other countries do. That is a very good idea. I welcome confirmation from the leaders of the Opposition parties that they would like to have their budgetary plans examined-----

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