Costing political manifestos can prevent political parties from making pre-election promises they can't keep.

Processes in like Australia the Netherlands require every party to submit their accounts months before an election - assessments are done on those figures and projections are made on what the impact would be.

Last week Professor John McHale of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council said there's an OECD advisory, which says there should be a body here to assess the costings of political manifestos.

Co-author of that report, Ronnie Downes, told Newstalk Breakfast that parties' reputations are at stake if they make pre-election promises they can't keep: