A fiscal council without regard for society is not worth the money

Isn't the Fiscal Advisory Council a disgrace? A bunch of overpaid academics and economists, sitting in their ivory towers, twice a year telling the rest of us what to do, spreading gloom and doom. If the budget is balanced (after years of trying), they sneer. If our debt burden looks to have fallen significantly, they tell us that’s because we’re using the wrong measures. If there’s any little bit of spare capacity in the economy, they want us to cut it out right now.

We’re the people who keep making mistakes, according to the council, not least in the belief that we like to vote for popular things. We give them a little more than €500,000 to tell us that twice a year. It may not be exactly a case of biting the hand that feeds you, but it’s hard sometimes to escape the feeling that these “I know best” merchants are just a bit too self-righteous.