Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 May 2021
304. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Finance the details of his engagement with the IMF over the past 18 months; if he will request the IMF to include health risks in all country specific economic risk reports in view of Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26034/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy may be aware, the IMF recently concluded Ireland’s biennial Article IV consultation. A requirement for all members of the Fund. This process assesses a country’s economic and financial developments, including discussions with the Country's economic and financial policies with Government and Central Bank officials. This follows the unfortunate, but understandable, suspension of the IMF’s overall surveillance in 2020 resulting from Covid which meant that Ireland’s planned 2020 Article IV review could not proceed.
As part of the 2021 Article IV consultation, the IMF held a series of constructive and engaging meetings with myself, Minister McGrath and our officials over the course of the two weeks between 26 April and 7 May. The IMF’s preliminary findings, which form the basis of the Article IV Report due to be published later this year, were made available in the form of a ‘Concluding Statement’ published on the IMF website on 12 May 2021. The Article IV process provides a valuable outside perspective on Ireland’s medium to long-term economic prospects and I look forward to receiving the IMF’s more detailed assessment in the full Article IV Report. The IMF also undertook an Article IV consultation with the euro area in 2020. This provided further opportunities to engage with the IMF Managing Director, who presented the outcome of the IMF’s consultation at Eurogroup on 30 November 2020.
In addition to participating in the Fund’s bilateral surveillance, I attended the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings 2020 last October and the recent IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings 2021 in April, both held in virtual format. As part of these events, I participated in meetings with the IMF Managing Director and European policy-makers to discuss current policy challenges. As part of these meetings, I also attended the plenary meetings of the International Monetary Fund Committee (IMFC), the body responsible for providing strategic direction to the work and policies of the Fund.
This engagement was supplemented with a series of bilateral calls with the IMF Managing Director and the Executive Director of Ireland’s Constituency at the Fund throughout 2020. Officials in my Department continue to engage with the IMF on an ongoing basis, primarily through Ireland’s representatives based in our Constituency Office in Washington D.C. This ongoing engagement and collaboration is particularly valuable as it allows Ireland to benefit from the Fund’s insights into the challenges and opportunities we face and to utilise the IMF’s extensive experience and expertise to inform our macroeconomic and financial policy-making.
With respect to the second part of your question, I understand that the IMF has been covering health risks in all its country-specific assessments. The pandemic’s impact on lives and livelihoods is clearly macro-critical and therefore falls within the Fund’s focus. Moreover, international cooperation on these efforts is critical in today’s globally integrated economy, in which the policies of one country can affect many others. I can assure you that the pandemic has been the predominant theme of the majority of my discussions with the IMF Managing Director and Fund management over the last year.
