Jim Power

And it's something we are going to be talking a lot more about as time evolves.

Yeah, well, it is interesting, Chris, does the spring economic statement that was published there in April, it was looking at the exchequer balance.

OK, the exchequer balance is basically I'm going to get a little bit geeky here now, but the exchequer balance is basically the difference between what the government collects in taxation and a few other revenues, but mainly taxation and what it spends on the day to day running the country.

And

capital investment stuff.

And that exchequer balance is forecast to come in

at a deficit of 1.2 billion this year, 3.4 next year, and 7.7 billion the following year.

Okay, but the general government balance, on the other hand, is forecast to come in at a surplus of 9.2 billion this year, 9 billion in 2027, and 6.7 billion in 2028.

So the difference between the Exchequer central government and general government is include stuff like...

the non-commercial semi-state companies.

It includes stuff like, for example, the money that the government is putting into the two funds that have been set up, the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund.

The money that's put into the

those funds comes out of the exchequer balance.

Okay.

And it makes the deficit worse than it really is.

However, from a general government perspective, it's neutral.

It has no effect.

So as a consequence of that, the general government surplus, well, that and other things, the general government surplus is very strong.

So where I'm going with this, if I've not lost you all already, is the fact that-

Yeah, it's the fact that when people see the headlines about this massive surplus on the general government balance, they immediately say, you know, what's the government complaining about?