The question sprang to mind again last week when Dame Street issued its spring bulletin.

The big themes - economic growth predictions and worries about productivity, credit growth and overreliance on construction - had already been thrashed out by other commentators. If there's one thing that Ireland could do without, it's another talking shop for economists, especially when everybody is saying more or less the same thing.

Ever since we signed up for the euro, the Central Bank has been an organisation without a mission, even if it has yet to be asked to justify its existence.

The important job of policing financial institutions has been spun off to the Financial Regulator, which also has the new task of protecting consumers in their dealings with the banks.

The Central Bank worries about a lot of things but it is powerless to act. It has hinted that December's Budget was too generous but, with an election to win, the government has turned a deaf ear.

It is increasingly alarmed about credit growth, but as it has no control over interest rates, there is nothing the bank can do to curb the supply of money. The only way left to clip the banks' wings is to force them to keep bigger reserves for 100% mortgages.

But reserving policy is a job for the Financial Regulator, not the Central Bank.

If it was scrapped in the morning, would anybody care - apart from the secretary general of the Department of Finance, for whom the Central Bank provides a traditional lap of honour as governor in the run-up to retirement?