Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 September 2023

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed): Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and Nevin Economic Research Institute

Professor Michael McMahon:

A prudent way to account for them would be to put them in as normal spending and then, when they are taken out, our net national spending rule is such that there is more space to spend. Equally, as IFAC has stated publicly and as I alluded to in my opening statement, labelling some capital spending as windfall capital spending rather than just including it as core capital spending is not how we would do it. The numbers we have presented and will present in our next fiscal assessment report will include windfall capital spending as core capital spending, whatever label it is given.