Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The purpose of the legislation is exactly to bind the hands of this and future Governments in so far as the fiscal rules are concerned. It is to ensure future Governments will not go crazy, as it was alleged a previous Government had. Fiscal rules that are subject to subjective interpretation by individual parties or Deputies are absolutely useless. The criteria must be objective and subject to objective tests, otherwise rules are of no use. The Deputy's formula is so subjective that it is a matter of opinion whether a particular measure is conducive to the future economic or social development of the country. In particular, once one introduces the idea of social development, one can have many varying views of what is in the best interests of social progress in the country. However, it does not provide a set of fiscal rules which bind the hands of future Governments when preparing budgets. That was the purpose of the referendum and the treaty and is the purpose of the legislation.