Book of Estimates a false doctrine written by coalition of heretics

MEAN-SPIRITED, cheese-paring, but above all dishonest. That is the only conclusion you can come to when you take the time to read the Book of Estimates in full, and think about the rationale behind it.

The most offensive thing about this Government now and it is surely obvious to everyone, even their own backbenchers is its sheer lack of truthfulness. And its dishonesty is compounded by its actions, all the time.

If the Book of Estimates published last week were the whole truth, it would represent a damning indictment in itself. It would reveal a shower of politicians prepared to say almost anything to get elected, and prepared to say almost anything to defend their actions once elected.

Could you believe your ears, for example, when minister after minister was paraded out to try to pretend they were doing us all a favour by abolishing the first- time house-buyers' grant? Sure it was only used as a device by builders to push up house prices. So what steps are they going to take to make sure house prices come down by the amount of the grant?

How are they going to ensure that mortgage lenders take account of the absence of the grant in setting out their deposit requirements. Who do they think they are kidding with all this claptrap?

But what makes it even worse is that the Book of Estimates is itself a lie. This is the first of two publications - the Abridged Book of Estimates is published before the budget, and takes no account of budgetary decisions. The Final Book of Estimates is published after the budget, and records all spending decisions announced on budget day. The second one will bear no relation whatever to the first.

The Final Book of Estimates will have, effectively, deeper cuts than the first one in some respects, and bigger increases in spending in other respects.

And that's because this Government is going to respond to the heat it gets between now and the budget, and is going to capitulate to the pressure points. I will bet you right now that the Government will publish some new scheme to help first- time house-buyers in the budget, or some new form of tax relief, and then we'll be told that's what they intended all along - to replace the grant with something that is more focused and useful and less likely to fall into builders' hands. And the backbenchers will go away happy.

But what they won't notice is that in order to pay for this sop, Charlie McCreevy will cut something else, or will go deeper with some of the cuts he has already made. Somebody - and it will be somebody vulnerable - will suffer all the more as part of this game.

The other thing that's forgotten in this debate is a couple of salient facts. We are a very rich country. To be sure, we're a rich country that is not growing as fast as we used to. But we are one of the richest countries in the world, with an increasingly high proportion of very rich people. Our national debt, as a proportion of our wealth, is one of the lowest in Europe - and it is falling steadily.

Secondly, we spend less on essential public services already than any other country in Europe. I have published the figures before in the Irish Examiner to try to counteract this notion that Ireland is a poor country that has no choice but to cut away at out-of-control spending. Again as a proportion of our wealth we spend just about three-quarters of what the UK spends, and we lag way behind every other members of the EU in terms of public spending. There are two main reasons for that some of them spend more on defence than others, and all of them spend more on social services than we do.

So when spending has risen in Ireland over the last few years at a time when we have been flush with cash a lot of it has been spent on catching up. And it must be obvious to anyone prepared to open their eyes that in health, in education, in roads, in telecommunications, in disability services and in other areas we have a lot of catching up to do yet.

Cutting spending now in those areas, at a time when we lag behind everyone else who is comparable, will do immense damage. And a wealthy country like ours doesn't need to do it.

Yes, we need better management and my God, would you look at what we've got. Charlie McCreevy told us all to party. He instituted a savings scheme which is simply, and plainly, a daft giveaway. He has insisted on putting aside a huge amount of money for a so-called pension reserve fund - which in fact (although you're never told this) will only contribute to public service pensions. That so-called pension fund money alone would have almost completed the catching up job we need to do.

And just look at some of the cheese-paring, mean-spirited cuts this so-called economic manager is going to inflict on us now, with the acquiescence of his spineless, conscienceless colleagues. And these cuts won't be changed because the people affected by them aren't a powerful enough lobby. (Add 4% for inflation to the cuts below to get the real effect - a nominal cut of 5% is a real cut of 9%.)

Victim Support cut by 5%.

Anti-racism awareness campaign cut by 63%.

Special Housing Aid for the Elderly cut by 3%.

The Heritage Council cut by 17%.

Fire and emergency services cut by 4%, and the library service by 3%.

The schools computer programme cut by 60%.

Primary school building cut by 4%, and secondary schools by 10%.

Provision for emergency humanitarian aid (for famine, floods, natural

disasters) cut by 12%.

The Arts Council cut by 8%.

These are only a very few examples - if I had the space I could list dozens. Do you know what they have in common? First, cuts like these are made at the stroke of a pen. Second, they affect people who have no powerful lobby to protect them. Third, now or in the future they affect the quality of life of the whole community. They make us all poorer.

Above all, they're not necessary. We can afford to improve quality of life services in Ireland. We can choose to recognise that there's nothing wrong with our economy that better management and a little generosity of spirit can't cure. In the end, what becomes clear is this. We may be the richest country in Europe - perhaps even the world - right now. There is almost nothing we can't afford to do, almost no challenge we can't take on. But in its determination to avoid the fair sharing of that wealth for the benefit of the whole community, in its dishonesty and shiftiness, our Government seems determined to rob us of a decent future for everyone.

It's one of the great and most cruel ironies we're a country rich in money, with a Government determined to make us poor in spirit.

Fergus Finlay has been appointed chef de cabinet of the Labour Party. He takes up the position on January 1.