Mr. Seamus Coffey:

When it comes to the overall endorsement, there are many elements that feed in to the growth forecast. This may be an area where we have concerns about a negative impact not being sufficiently estimated but, equally, we can have concerns in the other direction where we feel there might be positive developments that are not being fully reflected. Although we might endorse the forecasts based on where they are as a central scenario, we may have concerns in both directions and perhaps Brexit would be one in respect of which we would have concerns in a negative direction.

In terms of changing the overall forecast, we are not massively concerned about the actual point forecast itself. The issue would be that, from a policy perspective, we should accept that there are risks, both downside and upside, to the growth forecast. The risk we are highlighting is that there is a potential harder impact from Brexit than is currently built into the forecast. It is not necessarily that one has to change them but maybe that, when it comes to assessing policy, caution should be exercised regarding what one sees happening in the future.