Economy

Exceptional: How Ireland is a fiscal outlier in new EU spending rules

New fiscal rules will seek to ensure member states spend wisely, but Ireland’s booming multinational sector will leave it untethered

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath TD and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe TD: Despite the €223 billion public debt pile representing one of the highest per capita levels in the world, Ireland’s inflated GDP driven by extraordinary levels of multinational activity. Picture: Rollingnews

A divide has emerged between how most European governments are talking about their public finances, and how Ireland is.

Following years of large emergency spending programmes to deal with the pandemic and inflation, Bruno Le Maire, the French economy minister, has recently committed to €10 billion in spending cuts this year, telling Le Monde newspaper last month that this was only a “first step” to “restore public finances”.

France’s fiscal deficit reached 5.5 per cent ...