2 weeks Ago
Once all the general election votes are counted, and the Dáil seats filled, it will be back to business as usual for several organisations that kept a low profile during the election campaign. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is one of those. On Thursday, it publishes an assessment of Budget 2025, plus the wider economic context.
The council, under the chairmanship of Seamus Coffey, was a stern critic of the last government’s fiscal policy, criticising it for adding more stimulus to an economy already at capacity, and for contributing to inflation with large spending increases. Expect more in a similar vein this week. The council also believes that Ireland needs to have a national spending rule because new EU limits are unlikely to safeguard our public finances.
The independent watchdog says the spending rule could be set down in law, or that the government should seek cross-party agreement on the outlines of a spending rule. Will the 34th Dáil go for that. On the agenda of a meeting of EU health ministers in Brussels tomorrow is a European Commission proposal to reduce the period of exclusivity granted to medicine developers by way of regulatory data protection.
The current rule is eight years, and the proposal is to reduce it to six. The discussion will be closely watched by our pharma sector. On Wednesday, the fourth edition of the European Spirit of Peace lecture will be hosted by the Institute of International and European Affairs.
This year it is delivered by Simon Coveney, the former Fine Gael TD serving out his last weeks as Foreign Affairs Minister. The British-Irish Council, with leaders from eight administrations, will meet on Thursday and Friday in Edinburgh. Among the items for discussion will be how to finance a Just Transition.
Greencore have their results on Tuesday, so we will be hearing plenty that day from chief executive Dalton Philips. In a week that will not be short of numbers, the Central Statistics Office will have data on earnings and labour costs on Monday, building and construction on Tuesday, unemployment on Wednesday, and the live register on Friday..
