Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

230. To ask the Minister for Finance the position regarding the fiscal council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7475/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council was established in 2011, and became a statutory body when the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2012 came into force on the 31^st December 2012. The Act also sets out the Council's functions, which can only be amended through primary legislation.

In that context, Regulation (EU) 473/2013 introduced a requirement that draft budgets and the stability programme update must be based on macroeconomic forecasts that are produced or endorsed by an independent body. This endorsement function has been set out in an amendment to the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2012 and has been assigned to the Fiscal Council.

This process took place for the first time as part of Budget 2014. The endorsement states: The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council endorses as within the range of appropriate projections the set of macroeconomic projections prepared by the Department of Finance for Budget 2014 for the years 2013 and 2014 provided to the Council on 30 September 2013.  Since its establishment, the Council has published five Fiscal Assessment Reports and three other papers, all of which can be found on the Fiscal Council's website. In line with commitments I gave during the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2012, I respond to these reports, usually in my next fiscal policy publication. However, given the gap between the last Fiscal Assessment Report in November 2013 and the publication of the stability programme update next April, I responded to the Council in writing on the 19^th December 2013. My response can be found on the websites of the Council and my own Department.

The establishment of the Council has strengthened the fiscal governance of the country and its reports have widened and deepened the debate on fiscal policy.