Budgetary Oversight Committee to meet IFAC and ESRI as part of pre-budget hearings

The agenda for the meeting is:

1.    Pre-Budget scrutiny of Budget 2018 - Representatives from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC)
•    Seamus Coffey - Chair
•    Dr Martina Lawless - Council Member
•    Michael Tutty - Council Member
•    Eddie Casey - Chief Economist and Head of Secretariat

2.    Pre-Budget scrutiny of Budget 2018 – Representatives from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)
•    Professor Alan Barrett, Director
•    Professor Kieran Mc Quinn, Research Professor
•    Professor Martina Lawless, Associate Research Professor

Committee Chair Josepha Madigan said: “The Committee on Budgetary Oversight was set up to improve the level of engagement with parliament on budget decisions.  International experience shows that in a democracy, policy-making is improved when parliament has an enhanced role in budget scrutiny.  

“The job of the Committee will be to examine the foundations on which the forthcoming budget is being built and where evidence points to specific courses of action, the Committee can make recommendations to the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.”

The role of the Council is to independently assess, and comment publicly on, whether the Government is meeting its own stated budgetary targets and objectives. It is required to assess and endorse, as it considers appropriate, the official macroeconomic forecasts underpinning each Budget and stability programme. The Council also assesses the fiscal forecasts and the fiscal stance, and monitors compliance with legislated fiscal rules. Tomorrow’s meeting with IFAC will
assist greatly in our examination of Budget 2018 and subsequent report to Government. We are particularly interested in discussing IFAC’s pre-Budget 2018 statement and its recommendations on spending and tax plans.

Following our meeting with IFAC, we will hear from the ESRI. The ESRI provides key economic and fiscal advice to the Government and it also examines the impact of policy proposals. To that end, this meeting provides an opportunity for our cross-party Committee to test the assumptions that should be the foundation on which Budget 2017 is built.”

This meeting will start in Committee Room 2, Leinster House at 2pm on Wednesday 13 September 2017. Watch Committee proceedings here: http://beta.oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-tv/cr2-live/

The meeting will be broadcast live on Oireachtas TV; Saorview Channel 22; Virgin Media Channel 207; Sky Channel 574; eir Vision Channel 504 and Vodafone Channel 201.

Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.