Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The current practice is that all of the members come and they are all valued. It is an excellent council. The Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, was the previous Chairman of the committee and Deputy Ciarán Lynch is the current Chairman. They are valued, but I do not like routing knowledge through one person. It is a model which in education leads to all sorts of trouble. One gets the views of the boss and everyone else is in fear of him. All members are worthy of being heard.

On amendment No. 21, section 11(2) states: "The chairperson of the Fiscal Council shall, whenever requested to do so, account for the performance of the functions of the Fiscal Council." That is the uninteresting bit. We would hear that the council rented offices from the ESRI, went to 24 meetings and spent so much in bars. We want to hear the views of council members on what is happening to the country. That is the reason I specifically wish to refer to how we are doing on fiscal stability. The performance of the Fiscal Council is an administrative exercise. We hope that it did not spend too much money out of the tea fund but we really want to know its assessment of the Department of Finance and how we are doing on policy. The fact that the chairperson must account for his own body is minor; it is what is happening in the macroeconomy that interests us.

The Minister of State will say that is covered, but it seems to be the type of accountability that would relate to part of a county council. The job of the chairperson of the Fiscal Council is to advise the Government of a country being rescued by the IMF how to get back on the rails and how to run our affairs so that it never happens to us again. How he spends his own money or allocates his own time is the minor part - the uninteresting part. We want to hear his advice to either House of the Oireachtas on the attainment and retention of fiscal stability. The Bill is extremely narrow in referring only to the performance and functions of the Fiscal Council. The amendment is about the macroeconomy and, as it says in the title of the Bill, the delivery of fiscal responsibility.