A new IMF Staff Discussion Note addresses the scope for creative accounting in obscuring fiscal positions – available here.
Year: 2012
I am surprised the release of the wording of the proposed amendment to the Constitution has not received more attention today. Stephen Collins reports on the wording in a piece on the inside pages of the Irish Times. From the article:
The amendment will involve the insertion of the following subsection after subsection 9° of article 29.4 of the Constitution.
The new subsection 10° will state: “The State may ratify the Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union done at Brussels on the 2nd day of March 2012. No provision of this Constitution invalidates laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the State that are necessitated by the obligations of the State under that Treaty or prevents laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by bodies competent under that Treaty from having the force of law in the State.”
I just heard the normally excellent Stephen Donnelly say on RTE’s Drivetime programme that the amendment will put detailed fiscal rules in the Constitution. My reading is that the purpose of the amendment is to ensure that the proposed Fiscal Responsibility Act that will establish the rules is not in violation of the Constitution. The amendment does not put fiscal rules in the Constitution.
The draft of the Treaty is available here. The next piece of crucial information will come with the publication of the proposed Fiscal Responsibility Bill. The referendum to ratify the amendment will take place on Thursday, May 31.
The CSO have now released the full results of the 2010 EU-SILC. The report gives lots of detail on income and poverty in Ireland. One graph immediately stood out.
Care has to be taken when interpreting this as different households are surveyed each year and the composition of the households in each decile will also change. Detailed tables can be seen in the report which can be compared to those in the 2009 release.
When looking at the annual change by household composition the following can be seen.
The largest drops are seen for households with one adult aged under 65 and no children under 18, and “other households with children”. Drops are also recorded for other categories.
Thanks to frequent commenter Eoin Bond for the heads up on this piece of news, which may well be very significant for Ireland. From the piece:
The National Treasury Management Agency has signed an agreement with a subsidiary of China’s sovereign wealth fund which would allow the Chinese agency to buy Irish Government bonds.
The agreement was signed after Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao. Ireland is scheduled to return to the bond market next year under the terms of the EU/IMF bail-out.
The official press release is here.
The Nevin Economic Research Institute has been launched – the website is here.