The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, is recruiting an economic adviser to assist him in managing the dwindling Exchequer finances.
This is a new departure for the Minister who has never previously felt the need to have an economic heavyweight from outside of the Department of Finance to provide policy advice.
Some sources have suggested the Minister is making the appointment on the recommendation of the Taoiseach and other Cabinet colleagues.
The Irish Times has learned the job has been offered to a high-profile economist but has not been formerly accepted yet. A spokesman for the Department had no comment to make.
The economic adviser will be expected to play a central role in steering the Minister during the difficult economic times ahead for the public finances.
In recent days, Mr McCreevy has been strongly criticised over the huge cost of the Government-sponsored Special Savings Incentive Scheme (SSIS), which will drain more than €517 million from the Exchequer for each year of its operation.
This cost is significantly higher than the €300 million annual charge estimated by Mr McCreevy just before the scheme closed at the end of April.
It is also running ahead of the tentative annual costing of €127 million made by his Department before the savings scheme was announced in 2001.
Labour Party finance spokesman Mr Brendan Howlin described the likely cost of the scheme as a "damning reflection on the Minister's competence", suggesting it raised "serious questions as to whether Mr McCreevy misled the Dáil on the issue of how much the scheme would cost".
He called on the Minister to publish the basis for the €127 million estimate.
Meanwhile, the Minister also came under fire from Fine Gael with its finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, calling on him to "come clean" on the state of the public finances in the Dáil today.
In a statement, Mr Bruton said the Minister had many questions to answer.
"How far is 2002 Budget off target? How much will the new Programme for Government cost? What assumptions about the economy is the Minister making in negotiating spending for 2003? What is the Government's pay policy?"
The Fine Gael deputy leader also noted that growth in public spending in the past five months was growing twice as fast as was forecast at Budget time.
