New faces but same pre-Budget tensions between Ifac and Department of Finance

Irish Fiscal Advisory Council chairman Seamus Coffey’s warnings are similar to those Ifac issued in the past but the finance minister is set to breach the Government’s self-imposed spending rules again.
As the saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same and this is certainly true for the fractious relationship between the Department of Finance and budgetary watchdog the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac).
Earlier this summer, 33-year-old Jack Chambers was made Finance Minister after Michael McGrath’s surprise departure for a job in Europe. One of Mr Chambers’ first appointments was naming economist Seamus Coffey as chairman of Ifac.