Stephen Kinsella: Ireland is having difficulty with official statistics

Dodgy housing data. Gardaí self-breathalysing. Leprechauns in national accounts. So can we trust the government’s growth rates and the fiscal space?

The concept literally no one likes rolls around every year. We’re stuck with the fiscal space forever. The reason for the hated concept’s longevity is simple: the fiscal space is a part of our system of laws now. President Michael D Higgins signed the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union into law in 2012 after 60 per cent of us voted to introduce it into the Irish ...