Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. John McCarthy:
Okay. I think it needs to be remembered that the economics function was very, very small in the overall Department. Our job was simply to produce the forecasts. People did not come to the economics division to ask, "Should we do this policy or should we not?" Our role was simply to produce the forecasts at the time. That is no longer the case, where we are consulted on wider policy issues. So you cannot have a situation in which there is a change in policy because the economics division is consulted-----