‘EU chiefs should be quizzed by Oireachtas committee’

EU officials who have a major say on Ireland’s national budget should be questioned by the Oireachtas finance committee, its chair, Dr Liam Twomey has said.

Ordinary TDs and senators were excluded from the budget process, he said.

While Michael Noonan, the finance minister, was knowledgeable about the EU’s influence on the budget, citizens did not understand it, and even Dr Twomey himself, despite heading up the finance committee, was only getting to grips with it, he said.