Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister as he has answered my question fully, although he did not mean to. It is quite simple. He is going to ignore completely the advice of the fiscal advisory council. It specifically indicates that the structural deficit requirement reduction is 0.6% but the Government will come in at 0.3%. The council has specifically warned about the real questions about the credibility of projections for Government spending. It is a fairly tough indictment from an independent body and I wonder if there is any point in it existing if the Government is going to ignore those pieces of advice that it does not like for electoral reasons. The fiscal council has been understanding and indicated that it understands why the Government is acting like this. It is for electoral reasons. It has said as much in almost totally decoded language.

I congratulate the Minister for informing the House that the IFAC is now a redundant body. When the Government gets a report from IFAC, does it meet its representatives formally to receive and discuss the report?

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