Professor Niamh Hardiman:

Issues that have a longer time horizon than the next election are difficult to factor fully into the Government's calculations. Between 2004 and 2007, the Government, having attempted to correct some of the fiscal exuberance in the run-up to the preceding election and the European elections, was correcting the exposure with a view to the next election. It is always difficult to hear unwelcome news but my point is that we should attune ourselves to the need not to get too comfortable inside the expectation that nothing will ever go wrong.