Mr. John McCarthy:

I thank the Deputy for the easy questions. The Deputy mentioned the scope for revisions. He is half right. There is scope for revisions on the GDP but there is no scope for revisions on the employment numbers which are pretty much set in stone and are revised every five years with the census figures.

That is the definitive version, but the revisions tend to be very minor over the quarters. Some economists around town have certainly queried the GDP figures, but we take them at face value and see them as the Central Statistics Office's best estimate at the time.