Council Members

The Council is made up of five members, including its Chairperson.

The Minister for Finance appoints members based on their experience and competence in domestic and international macroeconomic and fiscal matters.

For further details on how appointments to the are made and how long they last, click here.

Prof Michael McMahonProf Michael McMahon is a Macroeconomist and is currently a Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow of St Hugh’s College. He is a research fellow of the Centre Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Deputy Director of the Nuffield Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Policy (NUCAMP) and Director for Impact at CAGE, Warwick. He previously worked at the Bank of England where for three years he was a euro-area economist doing both analytical and forecasting work. During this time, he served as one of the UK’s two representatives on the European Commission’s Experts Group on Economic Forecasting. He has also worked for the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development in Singapore. His initial term of appointment to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council was 4 years effective 18 April 2019. He was reappointed for a second 4 year term effective 18 April 2023. In December 2020, the Council appointed Michael as Vice-Chairperson to the Fiscal Council. In July 2023, the Minister for Finance appointed Michael as Acting Chairperson to the Fiscal Council.

Ms Dawn HollandMs Dawn Holland is a macroeconomist with a focus on macroeconomic modelling and forecasting. She served as Chief of the Global Economic Monitoring Branch at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs from 2015-2019, where she was responsible for producing the UN’s flagship publication World Economic Situation and Prospects and for the development of the UN/DESA World Economic Forecasting Model. Prior to joining the United Nations, she was a Principal Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), London, where she worked from 1996-2013 and remains a close associate. She has acted as an advisor to the House of Lords of the UK Parliament and to the European Court of Auditors, and served on the editorial board of the National Institute Economic Review from 2003-2013. She has been a Consultant for the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) Dublin, and the OECD, and has undertaken research projects on behalf of a wide range of organizations, including the Scottish Government, European Commission, Overseas Development Institute, and various UK Government departments. Her term of appointment to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is 4 years effective 1 January 2020.

Dr Adele BerginDr Adele Bergin is an Associate Research Professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute, where she is a joint research area coordinator for macroeconomics. She is an adjunct Professor at the Department of Economics in Trinity College Dublin and a Research Fellow with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from NUI Maynooth, a Masters of Science (Economics and Econometrics) from the University of Bristol and a B.A. (Economics) from Trinity College Dublin. Dr. Bergin was a Council Member of the Irish Economic Association from 2014 to 2020 and is the Policy Section Editor for the Economic and Social Review. Her term of appointment to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is 4 years effective 1 January 2021.

Mr Alessandro GiustinianiMr Alessandro Giustiniani, an Italian national, is a former staff member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) where he was most recently the lead country desk economist for Ireland responsible for developing the macroeconomic framework and the analysis of the sustainability of public debt. Previously, he was a senior staff member in the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department and the in the Western Hemisphere Department. Prior to joining the IMF staff, he served as Senior Advisor to Italy’s Executive Director at the IMF’s Executive Board and as a Division Chief in the Research Department of the Bank of Italy. Mr. Giustiniani has published widely on issues relating to exchange rates, international macroeconomics, and banking. He is a graduate of the University of Rome, "La Sapienza" and of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of Geneva. His term is 4 years effective 1 January 2021.

Former Members