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Committee on Budgetary Oversight publishes Pre-Stability Programme Update Report 2021

1 Aib 2021, 16:11

The Select Committee on Budgetary Oversight has today published its Pre-Stability Programme Update Report 2021. It marks the first time the Committee has engaged on the Stability Programme Update (SPU).

Chair of the Committee Neasa Hourigan TD said: “The Stability Programme Update is the Committee’s first engagement of the year with Budget 2022. This year, the Committee has undertaken its first ex-ante scrutiny of the SPU and this engagement will become an annual part of the Committee’s work programme, which will lead to a more informed debate with the Minister for Finance on the medium-term fiscal strategy.

“This report sets out the key areas that the Committee believes are potential risks to the Irish economy in the short-to-medium term. The Committee strongly recommends that the SPU addresses these areas and indicates how to mitigate such risks.”

Issues the Committee’s report has made observations on include, State pandemic supports, the labour market, capital investment, “non-viable sectors”, Government deficits and debt, tax revenue, EU-UK trade and inflation.

The purpose of the Committee’s pre-SPU is to bring parliamentary input into the SPU process, and the Committee intends to meet with the Minister of Finance after the publication of the draft SPU, expected in mid-April.

The SPU is submitted to the European Commission each year and outlines the medium-term macro-economic and fiscal forecasts, and in effect broadly outlines the State’s medium-term budgetary strategy.

The Budgetary Oversight Committee held meetings with the ESRI, the Department of Finance and the Central Bank in preparation for the report.

To read the report, see under ‘recent reports’ on the Committee webpage

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