Michael Noonan: ‘EU statistics office should straighten out its rules’

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has taken a swipe at the EU’s statistics office and said it needs to “straighten out” its rules so Ireland can decide on its public spending for the coming years.

He said the way the European Commission and specifically Eurostat decided on spending flexibility was “very different” from individual countries, including France who “usually gave two fingers to the rules anyway”.

Mr Noonan was speaking at the plenary session of the national economic dialogue talks with unions and employers among others. He agreed there was a need for “investment in social and economic infrastructure”.