Spending the key to next election

MICHAEL NOONAN’S appointment as chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

The former Fine Gael leader’s presence in the chair gives the committee an added punch and direction that has been lacking in the past two years.

Despite intense scrutiny of public sector expenditure, there is still a litany of waste being chronicled each and every week at the PAC’s meetings

The TDs present are effectively shooting fish in a barrel as the homework is done by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The annual report of the C&AG John Purcell is consistently a damning indictment of the management within the public sector.

Basically, the annual report compiles the worst examples of incompetence within the public sector and gives the PAC ample scope to put the boot in.

PAC meetings every Thursday morning in the basement of the new wing of Leinster House, colloquially known as the salt mines, frequently feel like Groundhog Day.

The favourite tactics adopted are either the dead man strategy, whereby a civil servant points out that he or she was not in the position at the time the incident happened and the individual in command has now retired, or else the political scapegoat, where the finger is pointed at the relevant Minister of taking the executive decision that went awry.

At times this is fair enough and Seamus Brennan and Martin Cullen can certainly expect to come in for severe criticisms when the mishaps befalling the penalty points system and the electronic voting fiasco come under scrutiny.

Taking the biscuit this week, during Mr Noonan’s first meeting in charge, was the Office of Public Works (OPW) chairman Seán Benton.

Despite an initial estimate of €13 million, the bill for the OPW flood prevention project is hitting €48m.

Yet Mr Benton did not accept that there was an overrun of €35m in this case, because the €13m was only an estimate and not the contract price.

“I define overruns as post-contract,” he said. But even by that rationale, the picture isn’t good as the contract price was €35m, yet is now close to hitting then €50m mark.

The flood scheme is a microcosm of the general problem of infrastructure projects running out of control.

The Government grants approval to projects based upon estimates that frequently are way off the final price. Funding that could be paying to improve public services or provide much-needed infrastructure developments is instead directed towards covering the cost overrun.

In a week where the agenda was dominated by a distinct failure to effectively deliver public services, it’s apt that the widespread overspending and waste will receive a higher profile through Mr Noonan’s appointment.

The Cabinet agreed back in May to significant changes in the way contracts are agreed.

The new system will mean the introduction of “fixed price lump sum” contracts for public sector projects, meaning there is no incentive for the developer to allow the price to rise.

Yet six months after this decision was made, the policy has still not been implemented.

The next General Election is likely to come down to one defining, yet broad issue: delivery of public services. The so-called Alternative Government of Fine Gael and Labour is not going to tamper with the low-taxation regime that has proved so successful for Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats in driving the economy forward.

Sure, all sides will argue that equity will be introduced to the system, but nobody is going to increase tax rates the public now takes for granted.

The manner in which the post-2007 Government spends the money that the economy is generating is what voters will be looking at.

The evidence before Mr Noonan’s committee is that there is a lot of room for improvement in this regard. The presence of experienced Fianna Fáil TDs on the committee like John Dennehy and Seán Fleming will ensure that the PAC retains its traditional non-partisan role as a watchdog for the taxpayer, acting in the interests of the public at large, rather than engaging in political point scoring.

The public don’t need Michael Noonan to tell them what they can see before their very eyes and those families watching their relatives being caught up in the maelstrom of the A&E chaos this week know that only too well.