Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 10 September 2015
Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis
Nexus Phase
Mr. Marco Buti:
No. Clearly, I think it has been stressed quite ...quite forcefully and I think it is ... it is absolutely the truth is that, as always in the ... in programmes with the EU and IMF, the details of the individual policies are for the government to implement. Clearly, there is open dialogue and there is a lot of interactions. I think on the ... overall on the fiscal, I think you have two issues. One is the speed of adjustment, so how the fiscal ... the inevitable fiscal retrenchment is carried out over time and the other one is the composition. Now, I think on the speed of adjustment I have indicated that already - in the initial EDP decision - we had granted four years adjustment in 2013. These were extended to 2014 and eventually 2015 at the initiative of the Commission. I think this was largely correct. Now, in terms of the composition, one could have looked at, you know, social spending and maybe, let’s say, protect even more the less well off. But, overall, I would say that if one looks also at the indicators of market disparity of income, which increased very strongly ... but the ex post, after the tax and benefits system operating ... largely preserved the current distribution of income. I think this was a success of the programme.
No comments