His latest contribution is here, which covers some of the topics addressed on this blog over the last week (with John McHale’s points specifically cited).
Author: Philip Lane
check it out here.
From PER’s announcement:
Ireland Stat is the new pilot whole-of-Government level performance measurement website. It aims to meet the Programme for Government commitment for accountability and transparency and to answer the question “How is Ireland doing?”
Ireland Stat presents a hierarchy of measures to show Ireland’s performance. The website will show:
- Achievements – what has Ireland achieved?
- Actions – what has Ireland done?
- Costs – what has it cost Ireland?
- International comparisons – how is Ireland doing compared to other EU and OECD countries?
- Trends over time – are the measures improving, staying the same or getting worse?
Ireland Stat has evolved from the Performance Budgeting process and draws on existing publicly available measures gathered from Statements of Strategy, Annual Reports, CSO, OECD, EuroStat, etc. It brings the measures together into one website in a clear and logical way; it is based on international best practice.
Pilot website
The pilot website covers the following:
Policy areas Programmes Economy Jobs & Enterprise Development; Innovation; Agri-food Transport Land Transport Environment Rural Economy; Flood Risk Management; Food Safety
available here.
The following statement by Ajai Chopra, Deputy Director in the European Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is issued in response to media queries regarding the recently published research in the IMF’s World Economic Outlook on the impact of fiscal adjustment on economic growth and its implications for the EU-IMF supported program in Ireland:
“Putting public finances on a sound footing and promoting a durable economic recovery are both imperative for Ireland’s future. To contain the impact of fiscal consolidation on growth, adjustment has been— from the start of Ireland’s EU/IMF-supported program—phased over several years. The composition of budget measures is determined by the government, with the IMF, together with the EC and ECB, emphasizing the importance of implementing high quality measures that are as growth friendly as possible.
“In the current discussion of the impact of fiscal adjustment on growth, it is important to note that no single fiscal multiplier is applicable to all countries and circumstances. And although there is uncertainty around any estimate of multipliers, there is no compelling evidence that a higher multiplier was at work in Ireland than the one assumed under the program. With overburdened bank, household and SME balance sheets, and weak growth in trading partners, a number of factors besides fiscal consolidation have been a drag on growth in Ireland.
“The pace of consolidation under the program has struck an appropriate balance and continues to do so for the period ahead, enabling Ireland to make steady progress in reducing fiscal imbalances while protecting the still fragile economic recovery.”
This article is informative.