Testing advisory council’s fiscal clout

The Fiscal Advisory Council has got up Government noses but has it stimulated serious thought, asks Kyran FitzGerald.

IS the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council simply a group of well-meaning pointy-headed economists foisted upon the rest of us by the supposedly departed troika, whose advice can be safely ignored by the Government? Or is it a body with real heft, one that can assist in the transformation of decision-making in this country?

Well, the truth probably lies somewhere in between.