Prof John McHale of UCG is to chair the newly established fiscal Advisory Council, Minister for finance Michael Noonan announced today.
The council will provide an assessment of, and comment publicly on, whether the Government is meeting its own stated budgetary targets and objectives, according to a statement released by the Department of Finance.
The other members of the board will be: Sebastian Barnes of the OECD; Prof Alan Barrett of Trinity College Dublin; Dr Donal Donovan, University of Limerick; and Dr Róisín O'Sullivan of Smith College, Massachusetts in the US.
The council will be an independent body and its existence and independence will be underpinned by legislation to be brought forward by the Government later this year.
'The establishment of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is another important step in the process of reforming Ireland's budgetary framework,' said Noonan.
'The Council will provide an independent assessment of the Government's budgetary plans and projections and, in doing so, will help to inform the public discussion surrounding economic and fiscal matters.'
A commitment to establish a fiscal council was in the Programme for Government and was part of Ireland's EU-IMF agreement.
The standard tenure of appointments to the council will be three years. The first appointments are to be staggered.
The council will report to the Minister for Finance at least three times per year and will publish these reports and submit them to the Oireachtas within 24 hours of their presentation to the Minister.
