Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The stability programme update is released quietly every year and sent off to the European Commission after a token meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service. As it happens, in the final year of this Government's term it decided to make it a set piece event in the Dáil in order to put the economy centre stage on the political agenda and to create a distraction from the mess it made on so many other issues.

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