Public spending - Scandalous waste of our money

A report published by the Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy, the State’s public spending watchdog, reveals not just the shocking state of the Government’s finances but huge shortcomings in controlling spending, overseeing payments from both within and beyond the state and in the management of a range of services.

The report finds that General Government Debt — in other words State indebtedness — was in the region of €192.5bn at the end of 2012 compared to €169bn at the end of 2011. It also shows just how much of a black hole was created by the recapitalisation of the banks. The report finds the State had injected €20.8bn from the National Pension Reserve Fund into recapitalising the banks by the end of 2012. The market value of the total investments from the fund in the banks was only €8.6bn at the end of last year, a fall of more than €12bn.

To make matters worse, the report shows €12.7m in compensation has been paid to 817 depositors with Irish Bank Resolution Corporation — formerly Anglo Irish Bank — since its liquidation. The report says the compensation was paid by the Central Bank for its deposit protection accounts.