Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Ex-ante Scrutiny of Budget 2018: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and Economic and Social Research Institute

2:00 pm

Photo of Tommy BroughanTommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On debt levels, there is a very interesting section in the report on the fiscal space in the context of GNI* and recalibrating or recalculating the debt-to-GNI* target at which we should aim. I ask Mr. Coffey to expand on it. Does the council still have concerns in that area? Recently the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, and the NTMA decided, with the permission of our European colleagues, to refinance or buy back the IMF loan, as well as the Danish and Swedish loans, although apparently we cannot move on the British loan. Concern has been expressed by Professor Colm Fitzgerald and others that the debt repayment due in 2018 and 2019 represents a huge risk to the economy. Given that we are facing the refinancing of approximately €40 billion, if anything were to go wrong, would the council have concerns?

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