Mr. John Flynn:

The best way to think about the buffers in terms of forecasting is to be cautious in approach, to try to factor in as much as the committee can on the basis of what it knows and to be conscious that there is likely to be downside risk here. In terms of framing policy, the committee should think of things that way and adopt a cautious approach.

We published numbers in our previous bulletin in which we looked to estimate the impact of Brexit but we said there was a lot of uncertainty around it. We signalled that the uncertainty and risks were to the downside and that in terms of forecasts for the UK or euro area economies, things could turn out worse than expected. In terms of the transmission of the effects of Brexit into the Irish economy, things could turn out worse than expected. The committee should be conscious that there are downside risks in addition to downward revisions of forecasts on that basis.