The coalition has been warned that its spending plans for the next Budget don’t have enough tax increases to pay for them.

The warning comes from the incoming head of the ESRI - Professor Alan Barrett - who has conducted a report into the National Economic Dialogue hosted by the Government last week.

He says that all delegates ‘generally’ accepted the coalition’s plans to set aside up to €1.5bn in ‘fiscal space’ for the next Budget - but were ‘less inclined’ to go along with the Government’s proposed 50/50 split between tax cuts and spending increases.

Speaking last night, Fianna Fáil Leader Micheal Martin says he believes it’s clear that the so-called dialogue was a ‘choreographed set-piece’.