Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 May 2023

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

Examination of EU Fiscal Rules: TASC

Dr. Robert Sweeney:

What we recommend is not only anchoring in terms of interest payments to GDP, we also suggest setting up the climate investment fund. This could be funded a number of ways. It has been proposed it could be EU level debt, but it could be EU taxes. Italy or any other country would need to begin to correct. However, this should not come at the expense of very necessary investments in reducing their emissions. Ideally, the European Union would have a climate investment fund. I do not know the particulars of the Italian case in depth, but as a general principle, yes, any country getting to or exceeding the threshold should make a correction.