Professor John McHale:

The major risks are around economic growth. One of the things we do in this report is to show the sensitivity of the budgetary numbers to even small changes in growth. For instance, if growth were even to be half a percentage point less in 2015 than currently projected, without off-setting some policy measures we would be in danger of missing the 3% target. There are many uncertainties around growth, partly relating to the uncertainties that exist at a global level and also in particular at eurozone level. Growth risks are still the major source of uncertainty that we would highlight.