Dr. Martina Lawless:

The baseline forecasts the Government put forward as the basis for budget 2020 were examined and endorsed by the council. One of its roles is to check that the budget is based on macroeconomic projections that are reasonable, use good methodologies and are based on sensible assumptions. The baseline numbers feeding into both the budget and the council’s assessment are quite similar. What we did more was focus on the downside risks.