Mr. David Doyle:

Well, the manner in which tax shortfalls emerge is by stealth. You don't get, like when Revenue Commissioners get in the cash in a particular quarter, it is impossible for them to extrapolate from a particular quarter what's going to happen by the end of the year.

It's an accumulation of knowledge, so the budget deterioration was accelerating. I can recall myself coming back from my holidays in August that year and it was as if the wind had been taken out of the country. There'd been a complete loss of confidence. I can remember the Taoiseach being personally alarmed at what was going on and was very anxious that something be done to try and address the slide in economic activity. But equally we were concerned about the slide in the revenues, so when the Government decided to bring forward the budget, there was a twin-track approach of, say, "Okay, we'll take some measures to reduce the fiscal slide", bearing in mind the strong position that the public finances were in, apparently, "but we will also look at stimulatory measures where it can be shown to be good value for money". So, you'd have a twin-track approach.