Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The rules are blatantly pro-cyclical in the sense that if one had a recession tomorrow with 0% growth then one must cut spending. Those are the fiscal rules as they currently exist. Governments just say these rules exist to mitigate the pro-cyclical bias. It is impossible to explain that the existing rules are not pro-cyclical. If there is a crisis or recession further austerity will be required according to these simple fiscal rules.