Professor John McHale:

We would like to see the Government implement the budgetary framework that has been put in place. As we note in the report, this framework should provide important protections so that we do not repeat the kind of mistakes that have been made before, in particular, mistakes that tended to get made in good times. The budgetary framework is a combination of the European rules, mainly the Stability and Growth Pact. There is also a domestic component to that framework. We have our own Fiscal Responsibility Act. In addition to that, we have a system of medium-term expenditure ceilings, more broadly, the medium-term expenditure framework. The budgetary framework that I am referring to is a combination of European and domestic elements. It has been very nicely brought together in a document called the Medium Term Budgetary Framework, which lays out all the different elements and how they interact. We would like to see the basic framework being respected and the plans that the Government lays out being consistent with the requirements of that framework. The plans that were laid out in the stability programme and spring economic statement were not consistent with the requirements of the framework for 2016 and, even more seriously, a full and proper plan that was consistent with the requirements of the framework was not laid out for the period post-2016 .