Local authority spend - Infuriating waste of our tax money

IF the average household was to manage its income the way local authorities do, virtually every family in the country would need MABS, the service that advises people in financial trouble about money and budgeting.

That’s the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from today’s front-page report of runaway overspending by local authorities on projects involving hundreds of millions of euro.

The findings are a damning indictment of Government failure to clamp down effectively on the waste of taxpayers’ money that has been going on for years. Indeed, considering its own performance in the electronic voting debacle and other costly misadventures, the Government itself has been to the fore when it comes to squandering taxpayers’ money.