Warning from consultants - Crisis needs more than small change

Paschal Donohoe won’t be the first or last financial controller with an unerring ability to find a few bob down the back of the sofa when the political situation requires it. 

Some ministers have turned the ability to squirrel away a rainy-day fund into something of an art form.

Contingency budgeting is how the actuarial experts might describe it. The film actor Humphrey Bogart liked to talk about the importance of having “FY” money for those occasions when the going got tough.