Last week, the Central Statistics Office published a new measure of Irish economic activity known as modified gross national income (GNI). Unlike GDP, GNI strips out the profits from US groups based here.

Viewed through the GNI lens, our economy shrinks by 30%, our current account surplus turns to a deficit and debt levels rise 25% – reinforcing the fact that our sovereign debt is nearly twice the EU average. The question for Government is whether or not it is going to use GNI as the true measure of economic performance and, more importantly, how this is going to be reflected in upcoming budgets and spending plans.