Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 20 June 2017

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Irish Fiscal Advisory Council: Discussion

4:00 pm

Mr. Seamus Coffey:

Officially in the Stability and Growth pact, yes, a breach of less than 0.5% of GDP does not trigger sanctions. It is not guaranteed that a breach of more than that would trigger a sanction. We recently saw the introduction of a margin of appreciation which had us gathering around to see what that means. If there is a significant deviation, is it a margin of appreciation above a significant deviation?