Irish Examiner view: The original sin of government spending

The Housing Minister has carried over €340m — 10% of his 2022 budget — into this year. You'd swear there was no housing crisis.

While acknowledging the challenges — from the pandemic to energy costs — readers will be baffled that Darragh O'Brien failed to spend his entire housing budget. File picture: Liam McBurney/PA

Readers will be taken aback by news that the Government has not spent its entire housing budget for 2022 despite the worst housing and accommodation crisis on record.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien confirmed in a reply to a recent parliamentary question that he would seek to carry over the maximum amount allowed from his department’s 2022 allocation — 10% of the budget, approximately €340m — to this year, blaming a number of factors for slow progress in the area.

Some of those factors must be acknowledged as having a serious impact on construction in general — the hangover from the pandemic and supply chain problems are both genuine issues which can also be seen affecting different sectors in Ireland and further afield, with the rise in energy prices an obvious example.

Other challenges are also complicating housing plans. For instance, the detail in the Irish Examiner yesterday that 16,000 vehicles per day pass through a village such as Innishannon in West Cork hints at the pressures being placed on the national infrastructure by commuters travelling to and from large urban centres.

However, even making allowances for the influence of various factors, national and international, returning 10% of the budget is a striking indictment of operations in the Department of Housing.

The original sin of government spending is not to spend one’s entire annual budget for one obvious reason: If a department or office can save 10% of its allocation this year then it may be allocated 10% less next year on the basis that it was able to survive without that tenth.

The housing crisis shows no sign of abating, so Mr O’Brien may be confident that funding levels for his department will remain high. His colleague, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe, cannot afford to cut costs when it comes to the housing crisis.