The Government has a €6bn black hole in its spending plans through 2021, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) said yesterday.

The country’s budget watchdog said the Coalition’s late decision to spend €1.5bn in additional spending in 2015 was similar to ill-advised decisions taken by previous administrations during the boom years.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council watchdog, IFAC, has said that the Government was guilty last month of exploiting a loophole to deliver an unannounced splurge in spending in 2015.

In its final fiscal assessment report this year, the watchdog identified continuing serious concerns about overruns in the health budget, which it said was probably due to poor cost management.

There is considerable debate as to what should be the appropriate stance of Irish fiscal policy, now that the imbalances in the public finances have been largely corrected.

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The head of budget watchdog the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council said a body such as IFAC could scrutinise budget plans of opposition parties to probe whether their budget sums were credible.

The State’s financial watchdog has said that the Government risks repeating the same "mistakes" that led to the financial crisis by failing to stick to budgetary guidelines.

The State's financial watchdog has warned there is "limited room" for tax cuts in next year's Budget.