The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is an independent statutory body whose purpose is to provide an independent assessment of official budgetary forecasts and proposed fiscal policy objectives. It comprises five Council members and a Secretariat of seven. The Council was established on an interim basis in July 2011 and put on a statutory footing in December 2012 by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Our mandate • To endorse, as we consider appropriate, the macroeconomic forecasts prepared by the Department of Finance on which the Budget and Stability Programme Update are based. • To assess the official forecasts produced by the Department of Finance. These are the macroeconomic and budgetary forecasts published by the Department twice a year—in the Stability Programme Update in the spring and in the Budget in the autumn. • To assess whether the fiscal stance of the Government is conducive to prudent economic and budgetary management, with reference to the EU Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). The SGP is a rule-based framework that aims to coordinate national fiscal policies in the economic and monetary union. • To monitor and assess compliance with the budgetary rule as set out in the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The budgetary rule requires that the Government’s budget is in surplus or in balance, or is moving at a satisfactory pace towards that position. • In relation to the budgetary rule, to assess whether any non-compliance is a result of “exceptional circumstances”. This could mean a severe economic downturn and/or an unusual event outside the control of Government which may have a major impact on the budgetary position. The Council produces two assessment reports a year and other occasional reports. Reports are submitted to the Minister for Finance and published within ten days.