asked the Minister for Finance the amount of Exchequer receipts and expenditure from the 1st April, 1974, to the latest available date; and if he will make a statement on the implications of these figures.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Exchequer Receipts and Expenditure.
30.
The receipts into and issues out of the Exchequer are published each Tuesday in Iris Oifigiúil which is available in the Dáil Library. This weekly statement relates to the period from the commencement of the financial year up to the previous Friday.
The Deputy is aware that it is the normal practice to comment on the broad implications of the Exchequer figures for the whole financial year in the annual budget statement. I propose to adhere to this practice. If, however, the Deputy puts down a question on a specific aspect of a particular Exchequer statement, I will endeavour to answer it.
Would the Minister agree that there is nothing at all in practice or precedent to prevent the Minister commenting on any unusual trends appearing in the figures in question? Would he further agree that the figures in question, although he has not given them in this reply, would suggest an unusual trend in the buoyancy of revenue which he anticipated in April last year? That being so, would he not consider it advisable, and perhaps valuable from his point of view, to comment on the implications of what the figures seem to suggest?
The Deputy knows well from his previous responsibility that it is not the practice to provide interim statements, and I see no good reason to depart from this well-established practice or non-practice. The budgetary policy this year was such as to give to the economy a boost in the latter part of the year when we expected a decline to develop due to circumstances beyond our control, and reflecting world trends. Therefore it would be quite wrong to assume that the pattern of a few months would necessarily be carried through for the full year. When the full year's picture is available it will be appropriate to make comment.
Which world trends has the Minister in mind as having caused substantial alterations in the outcome so far of what he anticipated in April?
World inflation plus world recessions. There is a recession in world trade, a cooling off in demand externally and domestically which had its reflection on revenue. There is no country in Europe which is not affected by this trend. There has been a massive transfer of resources from Europe to the oil-producing countries.
Is the Minister saying that he anticipated that, for instance, our industrial exports would have been higher than they have been so far? Is he aware that as far as transfer of assets is concerned—I presume he primarily means oil prices—those figures were available when he prepared his budget and that nothing has happened since which is different from what was open to anticipation when he prepared his budget?
I refer the Deputy to my budget statement and say to him that my words of prophecy have been justified by what has since occurred.
The Minister is singularly unconvincing——
Please, we must have some progress.
In the Seanad in December, 1973, I was a prophet.