Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Examination of EU Fiscal Rules (Resumed): Irish Fiscal Advisory Council

Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

There are two issues in that. First, the council's budget is also ring-fenced because in some countries, the governments have taken revenge against assessments they did not like by cutting the budget or moving the fiscal council to very small remote towns as they did in Denmark, which of course is a nice thing in a way but has other inconveniences. Our budget is ring-fenced but it is being linked to inflation. Of course, most of our costs, for those sitting around there, are linked to wages. There is an issue of catching up to where we were before. We have had someone's contract expired that we have not been able to renew and that has limited our ability to do our job. We are in discussions with the Department of Finance about that. If we had some of these additional tasks, it is not a huge amount that would be needed. One extra person is probably what we are talking about but it is important to note that.

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