Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the three representatives for coming in. It is good to see them again.

On the growth forecasts, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, which was set up recently here, produced for the committee an extraordinary chart which showed the growth forecasts for all of the major players, such as the OECD, being revised downwards quarter by quarter. It was an extraordinary graph that showed a clear systemic error in growth forecasting. The fact that these institutions and economists all were making the same error repeatedly means it is a systemic error. It means there is something wrong with the economic modelling capabilities of the smartest persons we have doing this. Has this been addressed in the analysis? Has anything specifically been done to address that fact that because everyone has got this wrong every quarter and always in the wrong direction, it is clearly a systemic error? That is my first question. I have a few different questions; does the Chairman mind if we take them one at a time?