Leo’s health-budget diagnosis was obvious, but I doubt he can cure it
Get that man an economics noble prize.
It seems to have been forgotten that Mr Varadkar was Minister for Transport for over three years. Yet in all that time he never managed to get a grip on CIE’s finances and walked away leaving that unresolved mess for his successor, who seems equally disinclined to sort it out. It’s pretty simple, you review where all the money, cent by cent is spent, and you make that information public, then you engage in a debate with all interested, as opposed to vested interested, parties and then you start making decisions that either spending needs to be reformed or the budget needs to be increased, through tax or the allocation of more resources from other sources and you public your evidence.
It’s worth pointing out that the UK health budget for a universal and free at the point of use service, for a population of 64 million is Stg£110 billion per annum. The budget in Ireland for a population of 4.5 million, that is not universal or free at the point of use, is 13.6 billion per annum, or about Stg£11 billion. The UK population is about 14 times the size of Ireland, which would imply the Irish health system would cost the UK about Stg£154 billion per annum. How is it possible that the UK can provide a NHS for Stg£110 billion but our version would cost them Stg£154 billion because that implies it is not a lack of money that makes the Irish health system dysfunctional but poor financial management. This raises the fear that the department does not need a Dr in charge but would be better suited to an accountant.
But the real acid test of whether Mr Varadkar offers a new politics is as always to follow the money. He refuses to publish audited accounts to verify how he funded his election campaigns, he refuses to publish receipts to verify the thousands of tax free expenses he has claimed since 2007, publishing a breakdown of what he claimed which he did for a while but doesn’t do anymore is not the same as verification. He didn’t flinch at accepting a Ministerial pay rise despite already being more than well paid as a TD, nor did he raise any objections to the ‘reform’ of the Ministerial car pool, where instead of the government directly providing the car, it is now provided through the relevant department and paid for by a travel allowance that hidden within the departments account. But the best bit is that instead of the car being returned when a Minister left office, they now get to retain the car the taxpayer has paid for, so as well as our taxes paying for second homes, local office we are now paying for the Ministerial car and don’t even have the option to sell them on.
If Mr Varadkar really wants to show he represents a different type of politics he can be tested in one word; transparency. A member of the public should be able to go on the Department of Health website and find out, to the cent if they are so inclined, where the health budget is spent, and with regard to Mr Varadkar himself, every cent he receives from the taxpayer above his basic salary should be accounted for publicly. If it’s good enough for Ministers in countries like Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands it should be good enough for Ireland.
Mr Varadkar is in a position to lead by example on these issues and it’s time for him to demonstrate that he is capable of being the first one to offer an example of best practice, precisely because such a level of transparency would horrify his cabinet colleagues.
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