Lack of accountability in €13bn-funded public bodies system, shows research

PUBLIC bodies — with a €13 billion annual spend — are becoming less open and accountable, according to new research.

It claims the system of appointment to these agencies gives elite groups “an inordinate degree of influence” on decision-making in the State.

Many of these bodies avoid having their decisions come under public scrutiny, says TASC — Ireland’s think tank for social change.

Close to 500 public bodies operate with a national remit, having developed rapidly from just 80 in 1979, according to Outsourcing Ireland — Public Bodies and Accountability.

Report co-author and TASC director Paula Clancy says: “The unplanned and ad hoc mushrooming of public bodies, combined with the lack of good information about them, is bad for democracy.

“The very existence of these agencies in the fragmented manner in which they have grown adds a further layer to the bureaucracy of government, constraining an individual citizen’s ability to interact with an agency from which they are seeking a public service.

“This is particularly since their numbers have grown very markedly in the last 10 years and many are hugely significant in their impact on people’s everyday lives.”

The research shows:

* No consistent source of information on the number and category of public bodies.

* Many public bodies aren’t covered by transparency and accountability measures, such as Freedom of Information legislation.

* The majority of the 5,000 appointments at national level alone are estimated to be in the gift of Government.

* No clearly established mechanism to ensure appointments are free from undue political or other influence.

Ms Clancy believes the scale and significance of the functions of many of these bodies mean a coherent rationale for the establishment of public bodies is an imperative.

She continued: “A number of questions must be asked. Is there sufficient transparency regarding the whole range of such public bodies, the rationale for their existence and for their particular form and function?

“Are these bodies made properly accountable to government and the public? Are appointments to public bodies free from improper influences or bias, political or otherwise?”

TASC’s research shows public bodies are core to our State system of governance and have long since ceased to be merely an adjunct to the main work of Government, conducted within the central civil service.

Many are extremely significant in the public functions they perform, the scale of public expenditure they control and their sheer size as public sector employers.

However, an absence of good information systems means accurate assessment of their nature, scale and significance is difficult to establish.