Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are two points on that. I would be careful, as the Deputy acknowledged, about deriving a great deal of comfort from what has happened to national income growth because so much of the improved performance in national income has been driven by what has happened to our exports in a particular part of our economy. The reality of where we are is contained in the Deputy's point about what has happened to unemployment this year, which has, unfortunately, been in line with our fears of what could happen. While it is welcome that there has been a sharp decline in the number of those receiving the pandemic unemployment payment, it is still the case that there are far more people on it than we would ever want.

We will have to make a decision on budget day about the scale of the stimulus. As I indicated to Deputy Bruton, the figure is already at €9 billion. The only note of caution I would sound is that while we can commit to the principle of stimulus over a number of years, being able to forecast the level of stimulus that will be needed in 2022, for example, given the high degree of uncertainty surrounding us at the moment, would be a very demanding task. That is a decision that may be taken at another point.

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