John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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141. To ask the Minister for Finance the annual cost of the Fiscal Advisory Council (FAC), from 2020 to date in 2024, in tabular form; and if this cost can be justified in view of the fact that the Government has ignored the FAC’s advice in each year of the current Government’s term. [38390/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council ("the Council") was first set up on a non-statutory basis as part of the reform of Ireland’s budgetary architecture in 2011. It was established in law the following year, with the enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2012. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council ("the Council") is an independent statutory body.

The Council makes a valuable contribution to the public debate and plays an important part in our budgetary cycle.

The Council have a mandate to assess and endorse, as the Council consider appropriate, the macroeconomic forecasts prepared by the Department of Finance twice a year, to assess the official budgetary forecasts, to assess the fiscal stance of Government and to monitor and assess compliance with the budgetary rule as set out in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act provides that the Council is funded directly by the Central Fund (Exchequer) and indexed each year in line with the annual change in the rate of inflation (HICP rate). The decision to enshrine the Council’s funding mechanism in legislation in this manner reflects the importance placed by Government on preserving the Council’s financial independence as well ensuring adequate funding into the future.

Payments made out of the Central Fund to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council are published in the annual Finance Accounts, available at . The figures are reproduced below for the Deputy’s convenience.

The figure for 2024 is as of the end-August Fiscal Monitor, available at:

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Table: Payments from Central Fund to Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (2020 – 2024)