The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has warned that the government’s 2019 budget plans are counter to prudent economic management.
“We are seeing budget plans that aren’t being carried through on, we are seeing spending based on revenue sources that may not turn out to be permanent, and we don’t have a clear and credible medium term fiscal plan set out,” Seamus Coffey, chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, told journalists.
“There are echoes of policy mistakes of the past,” he added. “There is no doubt about that.”
As reported by the Reuters news agency, there has been a significant unbudgeted increase in spending this year, mainly on healthcare.
“We just couldn’t turn a blind eye to that need to invest in public services and public infrastructure,” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told a news conference.
