Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, which is the independent oversight body, does not believe it is the right call. Why did the Government not publish work on the summer economic statement after the July stimulus was announced? It was still July; it was still the summer.

The fact is we are going into a budget next week without any document, regardless of how much the budget diverges from that document, which we know it does every year. There are no projections in regard to where the Department of Finance foresees the economy going prior to the budget. Therefore, there is less scrutiny and less oversight, not only by the Oireachtas, but also by the independent body that was one of the major outcomes of the last financial crash, when it was decided we needed this type of independent oversight and advisory body. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is not able to benchmark against a document. Why was this not done after the July stimulus?