Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 69: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the work to date of the Fiscal Advisory Council; and if he is satisfied that its composition is sufficiently broad in terms of background and expertise to enable it to fulfil its mandate. [33919/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I announced the establishment of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council on 7 July 2011. The Council is part of a wider agenda of reform of Ireland's budgetary architecture which is envisaged in the Programme for Government. The Council is an independent non-statutory body. It will be put on a statutory basis underpinned by legislation to be brought forward by Government in the coming months in the proposed Fiscal Responsibility Bill. Its role is to provide an assessment of, and comment publicly on, whether the Government is meeting its own stated budgetary targets and objectives. It will also be charged with assessing the appropriateness and soundness of the Government's fiscal stance and macroeconomic projections as well as an assessment of the extent of compliance with the Government's fiscal rules. The latter are also to be brought forward in the proposed Fiscal Responsibility Bill.

The five members of the Council are: Mr Sebastian Barnes, OECD, Professor Alan Barrett, TCD (on secondment from the ESRI), Dr Donal Donovan, University of Limerick (formerly IMF staff), Professor John McHale, Head of Economics, NUI Galway and Chair of the Council, and Dr Róisín O'Sullivan, Associate Professor, Smith College, Massachusetts.

I appointed the members having regard to a number of criteria including the desirability of having a mix of appropriate backgrounds (academia, the financial sector/financial markets and public finance), macroeconomic/microeconomic expertise, a strong international dimension as well as the need to take gender considerations into account. I am satisfied with the composition of the Council and I am pleased that individuals of such high calibre have agreed to serve on the Council.

The Council recently published its first assessment report which was generally well received. Their advice, along with advice from other bodies, domestic and international continues to inform Government thinking in the development of fiscal policy. As I said at the outset, the Council is an important element in the reforms we are making to improve Ireland's fiscal framework.