Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

As always, we expect and hope that the Government will provide a response to our report in which it sets out its response more clearly. In the comments that we have seen in the past 24 hours there is nothing that would cause us to review anything that we wrote in our report. We stand by our report. Our assessment is correct and well founded.

Some of these issues are long-standing, both in terms of the way the forecasts are done and whether they provide a realistic and useful benchmark or guidance for parliamentarians. The long-standing political questions of the overall fiscal strategy for the medium-term is a very urgent and important one for the country. That is why we say it needs to be answered. It is very important for many reasons, including fiscal sustainability. We absolutely stand by what we said.

It is very important because the lack of a clear plan and projections really does leave the public finances in a somewhat vulnerable position. Making big commitments without adequate funding is a classic risk for the public finances and really does need to be addressed. This is an issue that we will keep looking at and assessing.

This is also a question for other people, including parliamentarians. If they accept our analysis and feel they are not getting the guidance they need from the official projections, parliamentarians, including the Deputy, should make those points to the Government as well.