Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is our final SPU. Next year, as the Minister indicated, it will be replaced by the new progress report in April of each year under the EU fiscal rules. The SPU states that the medium-term fiscal plans will commit member states to an agreed net expenditure path for a five-year period and the plan will subsequently be endorsed by the Council of the European Union. It states that, once endorsed by the Council, it is not generally possible to deviate from the agreed net expenditure path unless a new government takes office. I find that quite extraordinary. The SPU lays out in stark terms how restricted member states' national governments will be. It goes on to state that a member state government cannot alter the net expenditure path once it has been endorsed by the Council. Will that mean that Ireland, under the new EU fiscal rules, which the Government obviously supported, in order to increase or decrease net public expenditure from the five-year plan, will have to have an election to deviate?