Professor Alan Barrett:

The instability created by bust-boom cycles goes to the heart of much economic thinking over the past 150 years. It is a critical point. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is a very small player but the issue has been raised. Inappropriate fiscal policy has aggravated the bust-boom cycle, and in our small mundane way, as Professor McHale put it, at least if we can play our role in ensuring this part of the cycle is dampened, it is worthwhile.