Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

Dr. Kelly referred to countercyclical policies. We all understand the concept that when things go bad, you spend from your savings fund, and when things are booming, you cut back on your expenditure. In reality, as he knows, it is never that simple. Your instinct when things are going bad is to cut spending. We experienced a crash in 2008 and 2009 and our income dropped dramatically. Going by Dr. Kelly's logic, theoretically, that was a time when you would be putting money back into the economy to sustain the economy, yet we cut spending massively around that time and the economy rebounded incredibly quickly, way ahead of expectations. How would Dr. Kelly explain that? That contradicts his countercyclical argument, does it not?