Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone who has contributed today. I welcome the new measurements, because they help to give a more accurate picture of what is happening in the economy. People have already made the point about the practical problem that poses for how Europe measures us and what that means for official debt ratios, fiscal space and all of that. That is one dilemma but at least we now have information. It throws responsibility back on political authorities here, to some extent, to be prudent and realistic about where we are. My fear is that the debate will then be an austerity debate.

The difference between GNI* and GDP given by Professor Lane is quite dramatic, at about 20%. That is a huge amount. That means that, far from Ireland being one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and a model economy, we are in a much worse, incredibly vulnerable position. That is what I would conclude from those numbers. Would Professor Lane agree that that is a more accurate picture? To use a football analogy, if one judged British football from the premiership, which is packed full of international stars which they buy in from elsewhere, one would think that English football is in a great state, but of course the domestic game in Britain is at its lowest ebb ever. There is a connection between these two. The standard of the domestic game has collapsed because they import all their quality. One might argue that is not a bad analogy for the economy.

The incredible over-dependence on foreign direct investment, multinational investment and so on, and the distorting impact that it has, means we are extraordinarily vulnerable here and the domestic economy is in a very poor position. I know Professor Lane is somewhat restricted in comments he can make on politics, but he and the Central Bank have a responsibility for stability - not so much the Central Statistics Office, CSO, which just provides the figures. What would he say about the stability of that kind of scenario? It seems to me that it is not a good scenario.