Fiscal Advisory Council advises against change to constitution

A group set up to advise the Government on financial issues says new fiscal rules should be put into legislation, rather than the constitution.

A group set up to advise the Government on financial issues has said that new fiscal rules should be put into legislation, rather than the constitution.

It comes ahead of an EU summit next week, where Government leaders will hammer out the detail of the new Fiscal Compact Treaty.

Once it is finalised, the Irish Government will ask the Attorney General for legal advice on whether it should be put to a referendum or not.

The Fiscal Advisory Council has also highlighted the importance of flexibility in new rules.

"Certainly in the Irish case, I think the constitution is not the right way to implement such rules," said chairman John McHale.

"Clearly there's going to be a requirement that they are in legislation, but the important thing is that the rules themselves that are in legislation are good rules and have the flexibility required.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said that the Council's recommendation is the right one.

"I think it does make sense," he said.

"We've always been in favour of a fiscal responsibility Bill, it was in our election manifesto, it's in the Programme for Government now, but we think it makes more sense to have that in law rather than the constitution, because to change the constitution you need a referendum and it might be very hard to organise a referendum if there were a crisis."