Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

The immediate trigger for this debate was the concern about the Exchequer returns for January and, in particular, some alarmist comments made by commentators on RTE and the fact that income tax receipts had appeared to be down. If one studies the Exchequer returns, given the circumstances and conditions, they are extraordinarily good. Very often – even in good times – the January returns look distinctly flat and disappointing but this year total returns, taking all tax revenue into account, are up 10%. While I accept one cannot extrapolate too much from this, nonetheless it is comfortably above the target but if one does, there is a crude rule of thumb because tax receipts come in in different segments at different times of the year. If one divides the total by 12, it is 8.33% of revenue. In fact, 8.8% of the target of revenue was collected so the opening month is reasonably encouraging from the point of view of there not being a shortfall. I accept that one cannot extrapolate from one month, whether good or bad, but I do not think there was cause for alarm or for the sort of suggestion that the public finances were already off the rails in the first month of the year. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am enormously amused at the quite different tones coming from Fine Gael, on one hand, and the Labour Party, on the other.

(Interruptions).