Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2021
380. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 518 of 21 April 2021, if the proposal with regard to the addition at European Council level of the words by the use of secondary markets to Ireland's 2018 country specific recommendations was made by Ireland; if not, the way that Ireland voted on the amendment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31818/21]
View answerFurther to Parliamentary Question No. 581 of 21 April 2021, I wish to inform the Deputy that Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) provide individual tailored guidance to Member States on macro-economic, budgetary and structural policies in accordance with Articles 121 and 148 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. These recommendations, issued by the European Commission as part of the framework of the European Semester for economic governance, are aimed at strengthening economic growth and job creation, while achieving or maintaining sound public finances and preventing excessive macroeconomic imbalances. Following discussions at the preparatory Council committees and adoption of the Country Specific Recommendations in Council, Member States are encouraged to implement the recommendations over the following 12-18 months, but these are not binding.
As is usual practice, following the publication of the draft Country Specific Recommendations by the Commission in May 2018, Member States have the opportunity to discuss the recommendations and seek factual clarifications. Factual inaccuracies are highlighted and it is not uncommon for the text of the Country Specific Recommendations to be amended, taking account of these discussions. This is done in the preparatory committees of Council. In the ECOFIN filiere, this work is carried out by the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) and the Economic and Finance Committee Alternates (EFC-A), before being approved by the Economic and Finance Committee (EFC) and by Finance Ministers at ECOFIN. A parallel set of discussions takes place in the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) filière.
The words secondary market loan sales appear in both the draft, as circulated by the Commission, and final versions of Recital 18 of the Country Specific Recommendations proposed for Ireland in 2018, which noted that a stronger consumer protection framework for secondary market loan sales could improve the viability of repossessions and write-offs.
At this stage the 2018 Country Specific Recommendation are historic and the only Country Specific Recommendations that Ireland need to take account of are the 2019-2020 Country Specific Recommendations, which need to be considered as part of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Ireland has done this as part of its draft Recovery and Resilience Plan, which was submitted to the European Commission on 28 May.
