Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are a quite a number of Cabinet sub-committees in existence. I choose to devote one day per month to them. For instance, yesterday I started at 8.30 a.m. and finished at 7 p.m. I went through a range of ministerial responsibilities, programmes and policy issues that need to be moved on by individual Departments or where there is a relationship between Departments and Ministers.

The EMC was set up for a very good reason. Given the scale of the economic crisis that faced the Government when it was appointed, it was necessary to have a focused entity that could regularly examine the evolving and changing economic landscape. As the Government comprised two parties, we believed it was important that there be that level of contact, as required, between the leaders or Ministers of the parties, as would apply.

The overall mandate of the Government was to fix the public finances and get our country back to work. The Economic Management Council, EMC, has in my experience allowed for very regular contact between the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform on issues arising every day of the most serious import. They concerned matters relating to the European Central Bank or questions about bailout negotiations etc. These discussions also concerned budgets in very difficult financial circumstances. The EMC is not the Government and there has not been a case where any discussion taking place at an EMC meeting suddenly became Government policy. It is necessary for its members to go before the Cabinet so that these matters can be discussed and formal agreement can be given if required. It is often the case that a view reached by the EMC might not emerge from the Cabinet at the end of the day, as other views might have been expressed.

Given the scale evident of where we were, this was a very important entity. As Deputy Martin is aware, the number of meetings we have had this year is smaller than the number we would have had per year in the middle of this crisis. I genuinely believe the EMC has an important value in keeping the Government focused on the central remit, which is to continue to secure the recovery, achieve full employment by 2018 and allow for constant changes in the way business is done and the kind of environment in which business can operate.

The spring economic statement is not a mini-budget and it is not a case of using the occasion for the purpose of making announcements that apply to the budget. It is an important entity for the Government to be able to set out its views about the challenges that lie ahead, the kind of business environment we would like to see and the strategy the Government will set out that it intends to follow as far out as 2020. Deputies are aware that national programmes are set by and in conjunction with the European Commission that are published in or around May each year. These are normally low-key programmes but the spring economic statement allows for the inclusion of these kinds of programmes in setting out the general environment and challenges we see up ahead. As I said, the EMC is not the Government. It meets as appropriate, depending on the issues that arise. The EMC will meet representatives of the banks in due course in regard to an agenda dealing with mortgages and rates etc.

To respond to Deputy Martin, the spring economic statement is not a budget or a litany of announcements about matters being implemented. It is to set out for everybody the opportunity to engage themselves in where our country is headed in the time ahead. The strategy will consist of the announcement of the spring economic statement, followed by a consultation and engagement with elements of the public and other sectors before the drafting and presentation of the budget in October. It is good that there are definite dates set for the implementation of budgets so people know those timelines. That has been of value. That will be the process following through the spring economic statement, leading to consultation and the presentation of the budget.

The independent fiscal council is an important entity. It is a watchdog independent in its analysis and views. The Government is not bound to take those views into account but it is an important entity in its own right. People can see the opinions and views of experts in the financial field, including what they would consider important to implement. The view of that economic council in terms of fiscal adjustments would have been more severe in some cases than what the Government did. It is for the political process to assess what decisions have to be made and how best they might be implemented in the interests of working towards full and sustainable employment, continuing to reduce our debt and making serious progress to wipe out our deficit, as well as having full employment by 2018.

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