Budget 2019 has “worrying echoes” of the policies that caused the economy to crash a decade ago, the country’s fiscal watchdog has warned.

In one of its most critical assessments of the government’s management of the economy, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) said that the budget, which was introduced on October 9, “is not conducive to prudent economic and budgetary management” and that the medium-term spending estimates were not credible.

The council was set up in 2011 as part of reforms introduced after the economic crisis. Its remit is to assess whether the government’s fiscal position could lead to another boom-and-bust cycle. Séamus Coffey, chairman of Ifac, said that there were “worrying echoes” between the 2019 budget and the fiscal policies in the years