Irish Fiscal Advisory Council slams 2015 spending splurge

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council watchdog, IFAC, has said that the Government was guilty last month of exploiting a loophole to deliver an unannounced splurge in spending in 2015.

Days before the Finance Minister Michael Noonan announced his €1.5bn in spending increases and tax cutting plans for 2016, the Department of Finance unveiled an additional huge package in spending measures for 2015.

This supplementary budget amounted to a further package of €1.5bn in expenditure measures which was to spent across a number of Government departments in the last few weeks of this year.