Our money – and how they spend it

Here are questions this weekend for Ireland’s finance minister, who is also, relevantly, minister for public expenditure and reform. Is there a systemic, country-wide problem with the way in which State agencies, such as the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Tusla, the child and family agency, manage their money and, if so, what can be done to fix it?

They’re fair questions, since governments have no money other than that taken from taxpayers or borrowed on their behalf, and when pleas are made for more spending on schools, health and police services, and roads and transport, the response from ministers is that while the economy is certainly recovering from the 2008 crash, prudence remains the model for revenue and capital spending.