Fiscal Advisory Council appointed

The Government has appointed five economic experts to establish the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council to appraise and critique the Coalition's economic policy.

The council will be an independent body charged with judging whether or not the Government is meeting its stated budgetary targets and objectives.

It was promised in the programme for government and was also included in the revised memorandum of understanding as agreed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in April.

It will be chaired by Professor John McHale, head of economics in NUI Galway, who will be joined by Sebastian Barnes of the OECD's economics department and Prof Alan Barrett, who is on secondment from the Economic and Social Research Institute.

Dr Donal Donovan of the University of Limerick and formerly of the IMF, and Dr Róisín O'Sullivan of Smith College in the US and formerly of the Central Bank, will complete the council.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the body's establishment marked "another important step" in reforming the State's budgetary framework.

He said a number of other countries had established similar bodies and had found them to be "beneficial" both in making sure appropriate budgetary policies were followed and in sending a "positive signal" to markets.

The council's existence will be underpinned by the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, to be brought forward later in the year. As well as commenting publicly on how well the Government is meeting its budgetary targets, the new body will assess the appropriateness of the Coalition's fiscal stance and its economic projections.