With our fiscal policies, is the compact right for Ireland?

The fiscal compact — the Not Quite an EU Treaty as it has been termed — is the proverbial curate’s egg.

At one level, like mom, apple pie, puppies and sunshine, it’s hard to disagree with the lofty notion of government finances being run in a coherent, sustainable fashion.

But, like the curate’s egg, it is good and bad in parts. To my mind, the bad elements outweigh the good. The Government had an opportunity to take on board a (soft) fiscal compact in the form of a private members bill tabled by Senator Sean Barrett, which would have addressed many concerns of the compact without the hard numeric targets.