Professor Niamh Hardiman:

One thing that was very much in evidence during the 2000s was the particularly strong bias in fiscal policy towards pro-fiscal commitments. We know that this is a recurring problem in Irish political life. There are very strong political and electoral pressures to commit to increased public spending in the good times and when the bad times come, there is no fiscal headroom. As there is very little scope for evening out the economic cycle, corrective measures are introduced at a time when they are most difficult. One of the corrective measures is the type of thing that has been put in place in recent years in the form of the Fiscal Advisory Council, to have an independent advisory body to provide information and expert and informed commentary on Government spending plans. It would not stop the Government. Irish Ministers for Finance have a tremendous amount of discretion when it comes to devising and implementing fiscal policy. The good side of that is that when a quick turn around in policy is needed, as we saw in response to the crisis, Irish Governments, in the context that they have good networked governance in the wider society, which we can discuss as well, have the capacity to make policy and implement it quite well through a very effective public administration system. They can turn around quite quickly. The balance side of it is that if disadvantageous or perhaps unwise fiscal policy is being pursued, there is very little friction in the system. There are very few institutional breaks. Again, this comes back to parliamentary scrutiny.