Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Let us deal with forecasting. Let us deal with the forecasts for GDP this year to ascertain how wrong they were. That would be a good point of departure, rather than the generalised statement with which Deputy Noonan concluded to the effect that every forecast was wrong. For example, in respect of GDP forecasts for this year, my Department was wrong because it was too pessimistic. Last year, in budget 2010, it predicted a rate of -1.3% but it now is at 0.3%. The Department was out by 1%. On the positive side-----

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