Mr. Derek Moran:

There is. It is a welcome development. If we had an independent voice like the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council ten or 15 years ago, it would have been a help. From my point of view, one of the things that is hugely important is for us to respect its independence in terms of its assessments and so on. Most of the day-to-day dealings are between Mr. McCarthy's area - the economic and the budget areas - and that is governed under a memorandum of understanding. There are frequent meetings. At critical points in the year when we are getting the endorsement, for example, of the economic forecast it is a very good thing that somebody external looks at the figures and says they fall within endorsement range and that there is no inherent statistical bias in what the Department of Finance is doing. That is very detailed, right down to an extraordinarily granular level.