Have the European fiscal rules had their day?

If they’re abandoned, what should replace them?

The Irish government has argued that growing economies need their own fiscal rules Picture: Getty

Michael Noonan’s last major public speech as finance minister was delivered to the Institute of International and European Affairs in June 2017.

At the gathering, held in tandem with the European Commission, the veteran TD reflected on the “fortunate coincidence” that the economy was almost unrecognisable from that of a few years earlier, when he first addressed the institute after taking charge of the national purse strings.

Things had “changed utterly”, he said ...