Why do we still have so many costly quangos?

IS there anyone out there who can explain to the ordinary Irish taxpayer why we need so many agencies — “quangos” — to run our country when we elect politicians and pay them handsomely to do the job?

The cost to the taxpayer of keeping these quangos in business has now topped €13 billion, more than double the €6bn cuts which the Minister for Finance is seeking in the budget.

A couple of years ago, the same minister promised us he was going to get rid of a lot of these quangos because they were too costly and unnecessary. Had he kept his promise in this regard, we would be well on the way to reducing our deficit to 3% by 2014.