How bad is bad?

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council had harsh words for the government last week, when it accused it of failing to capitalise on years of robust growth and neglecting to prepare for a future downturn

Seamus Coffey, chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, pictured at UCC Picture: John Allen

The Irish economy - which has been on an enviable run of growth lately - will slow soon. That’s inevitable. The questions are: how badly will it slow, and how well have we prepared for it?

Last week, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC), which is chaired by Seamus Coffey of UCC, gave its view: potentially the economy could slow very badly and - worse than that - we haven’t prepared for it ...