Brian Hayes fails to compound growth rate

Brian Hayes, the Fine Gael MEP and former junior finance minister, would probably ace the Leaving Certificate honours maths paper.

But everyone slips up now and then.

He told The Irish Times this week that the two Government parties should offer a common "statement of aims" to voters at the next election, showing how they plan to spend the proceeds of the recovery.

Referring to the growing economy, he said: “If we are looking at 3 per cent growth per year, that’s 15 per cent over a five-year term.”

It’s actually more like 16 per cent, when you compound the growth rate.

And before you all write in to label me a pedant, that’d be an extra €1.89 billion to play with, using as a base Ireland’s 2014 GDP of €189 billion.

Imagine how many votes you could buy with that.