Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The finance committee has been considering the issue of the fiscal rules because, as Mr. Barnes said, the review is being conducted. Both committees are working in this regard. At a meeting of one of the committees, we heard a deficit percentage of 3% was simply plucked out of the air at the time in question. France, for example, had a deficit of 2.6% at the time. The deficit percentage was more plucked out of the air than the result of a scientific method. What are IFAC's views on that? Do the witnesses believe there should be a more scientific method to determine the deficit percentage rather than picking an arbitrary one?

If people felt it was an arbitrary number plucked from thin air rather and did not have a scientific method and theory behind it, there could be anger on the streets. I am interested in hearing IFAC's views on that because we are in the process of looking at it again.