University College Cork economist, Seamus Coffey, has been appointed by the Government as the new chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC).
Mr Coffey previously held the role between 2017 and 2019 and was a member of the council for a year before that.
The academic will serve as chair of the council, which acts as a fiscal watchdog, for four years, although this can be extended through reappointment for an additional two further four-year terms.
“I wish to congratulate Mr Seamus Coffey on his appointment as chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council,” said Minister for Finance, Jack Chambers who made the appointment, following a competition run by the Public Appointments Service.
“I am keenly aware of the important role that the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council plays in our budgetary process.”
“Mr Coffey brings a wealth of experience to the role of chair and I know he will continue to ensure that the council continues to make an important contribution to the public discourse around the many fiscal and economic challenges facing the State.”
The position chair has been filled on an interim basis since July of last year by Professor Michael McMahon, who will remain on as an ordinary member of the council.
IFAC has been critical of the Government’s budgetary strategy in recent times, accusing it of employing “fiscal gimmickry” to flatter its numbers.
“Measures introduced in Budget 2024 lacked transparency,” it said in its assessment report on Budget 2024 last December.
“The Government used many techniques to present lower spending than is likely. Many of the measures labelled as “non-core” or presented as one-off in nature look likely to persist beyond 2024.”
It repeated the accusation in June amid concerns that cutting taxes and increasing spending, along with ramping up capital expenditure could all overheat the economy and add to price pressures.
While in July, after the publication of the Summer Economic Statement, it criticised what it called the Government’s “everything now” approach and said it appeared to be avoiding making choice in October’s Budget.
Mr Coffey’s served on the Commission on Pensions, which published its report in 2021, and was appointed as an independent expert by the Minister for Finance to undertake a review of Ireland’s corporation tax code in 2016.
He is also a member of The National Economic and Social Council, the external advisory board to the Irish Governmental Economic Evaluation Service and is the current president of the Irish Economic Association.
