Mr. Eddie Casey:

On the effectiveness of councils and whether we are listened to, those of us on this side of the table are the worst people to judge that but I will allow the Deputy to form his own views and perhaps ask his colleagues as to whether they are listened to.

More seriously, there are two points. I have been on the council since the beginning and the reason I am still on it is because I believe it does have an impact. Having an independent expert body that does a huge amount of work looking over all these kinds of issues very carefully is of service to the system.

I would point out also that for one of the budgets, which I cannot recall now, the former Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, said that his decision had been influenced by the council and that had it not been for the council's advice, he would have done something different. That is reassuring to me that we are having a useful role.

Internationally, a huge number of councils have been set up in recent years, most of which are very new so it is a little too early to say if they have been successful. However, there is a longer history of councils such as in the United States and Sweden. The Office for Budget Responsibility, OBR, has been going a bit longer in the United Kingdom. One of the determining factors in the success of those councils has been the political commitment around them. In countries where people were not committed to sound public finances or listening to the council's advice, they were not very effective. In systems where people were serious minded and concerned about medium-term stability, they found councils a very useful instrument to make that happen. It is a bit like the rainy day fund. It can be set up but if money is not put into it, it will not be of any help. If a country is committed to making the hard choices not to spend money, it may work. I hope that answers the Deputy's question.