Louise Byrne

Ireland's economic growth will continue.

However, depending on which scenario you're in, that economic growth will just be at a slower rate.

So the Tánaiste are very keen to stress yesterday that, you know, we're coming at this from a good place no matter what happens.

But Jack Chambers is also expected to tell ministers at Cabinet this morning with his public expenditure hat on that they also need to control their spending and rein in their spending.

So that's a message we've heard before from him.

Whether he will have any impact this time is anybody's guess.

But, you know, they seem to be trying to warn them that things might not go as well as is expected.

One would imagine so.

We obviously know that Hildegard Nocton has defended a near 500 million euro overspend in the Department of Education and said that, you know, when she went into the department in November, it would have been that she thought it was underfunded.

And, you know, this has been a long running overspend in the department.

It certainly didn't start with Hildegard Nocton.

But Jack Chambers has kind of been steadfast and has warned that if one department is to have an overspend

where the money is going to have to be found from other ministers' departments to match it and to kind of try plug the hole.

So you would imagine it is very much aimed at Hildegard Nocton.

But don't forget, there's been overruns in health.

There's been overruns in other departments.

Education is the issue today and I think it's a warning to other departments not to become an issue as we go down the line and towards the budget in October.

Unfortunately, we are.

And he will tell his cabinet colleagues that there is a risk of stagflation the longer the conflict in the Middle East goes on.

And I think the issue is we're kind of planning in the dark, aren't we?