Spending spree - Vote-buying now costing us dearly

The Government can no longer evade the charge that the blizzard of cutbacks, which it euphemistically describes as “cost savings”, are the result of a massive vote-buying spree orchestrated in advance of the general election.

Today’s Irish Examiner investigation shows conclusively that millions of euros were poured into the economy in the first half of the year.

This partly explains why the Government’s recent economic outlook showed public spending running at 22%, well above the budgeted increase of 14% for the year as a whole.

However, a department-by-department breakdown of expenditure up to July reveals the full extent to which one minister after another engaged in a naked exercise of front-loading the rate of spending so that services could be fast-tracked.

This despite a growing realisation that the global economy was in a tail spin and the outcome bleak.

Figures secured under the Freedom of Information Act show, for instance, that spending in the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, during the first half of the year was 65% above the same period last year. Yet the approved increase for the entire year was only 17%.

The inescapable inference is that this exaggerated level of expenditure was deliberately front-loaded to maximise the flow of money into a range of schemes prior to the election.

To lure the farming vote, spending by the Department of Agriculture was nearly 30% up on the corresponding period last year. Yet, the Government allocation for the whole year was 12% below agriculture’s slice of the budgetary cake in 2001.

A most revealing statistic concerns the Department of Environment which by mid-year was almost one-third ahead of its allocated budget. Yet, the allocated increase for the full year was only 9%.

In other words, the department was spending three times more than allowed. As a result, spending on rural roads is now being slashed by a whopping 81 million.

At the Department of Health, spending was running at 25% over its allocation of 16%. If allowed to continue, it would have been way over budget for the year.

In areas such as health, education, social services and the environment, plus several other departments, swingeing cuts are now being imposed by the Government under the guise of prudent housekeeping.

Politically, the realistic conclusion is that the Coalition had set out on a calculated policy of buying votes. Under the eyes of an Opposition which had taken its eye off the ball, ministers were pouring a huge proportion of the year’s allowance into the first six months.

Clearly, the figures confirm perceptions of a Government indulging in a vote-buying splurge in areas where the allocation of cash could influence people on the ground.

Inevitably, savage cuts are now the direct result of such a blatant policy of massaging an electorate which, as Fianna Fáil is acutely aware, can readily be bought.

But as the country is now learning to its cost, opportunistic vote-buying does not represent sound economic policy.