Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Fundamental errors in projections were made by the Central Bank, the IMF, OECD and others. As Messrs Regling and Watson state, the true burden of responsibility emerges as quite broad and extends to insufficiently critical external surveillance institutions. Fiscal decisions were taken in the context of abundant revenues, positive projections for growth and societal needs. It has been further suggested that there was a sense of irresponsibility in that we were not prepared to deal with our debt position either. We reduced the debt significantly during those times.

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