Government spending - Public not getting value for money

When politicians brag about their accomplishments, they all too often cite increased spending as an achievement, as if spending money rather than improving services was the real goal.

During the last five years the Government has enjoyed an enormous increase in its tax-take and has responded with massive increases in spending in some areas, but it has not demanded a commensurate improvement in services.

It’s easy to spend somebody else’s money, but responsible politics should demand that the public gets value for its money. This is clearly not being done.

Ministers have been behaving as if spending were both an election strategy and a political virtue in itself, without regard for what is actually being accomplished.

After examining the massive spending increases in health, justice and transport, Senator Brian Hayes concluded that those increases have not been reflected in improved services. The health budget increased by 125%, but the increase in services only amounted to 25%.

The individualised figures present an even bleaker picture. When the overall health budget was broken down in relation to the number of patients treated in 1998, the cost of treating each patient came to €5,112, but when the same breakdown is done in relation to the 2003 budget, the cost of treating each patient rose to €9,249.

Such statistics can sometimes distort the overall picture as they tend to oversimplify the scope of the expenditure. Yet the fact remains that even though the health budget was increased by over €5 billion in the five years, there were only 518 extra hospital beds for acute patients throughout the country.

When it comes to justice, it would seem that taxpayers are not getting any better value for the extra money being ploughed into the area. The budget has increased by 34% but we have been witnessing a spiralling of juvenile crime, which is but a foretaste of the likely problems ahead.

The budget for transport increased by 139%, but the Fine Gael figures in relation to the increase in services and the cost of travel are cloudy at best.

Although some of the statistics provided are not convincing, the figures do raise serious doubts about the value that the Government is getting for the increased expenditure of public money.

The increases do not even take account of the massive increase in expenditure as a result of benchmarking, which was supposedly concluded in return for increased productivity. That was an opportunity for reform, but on the evidence of the previous five years, enhanced productivity is likely to be little more than a dismal illusion.