Reaction: Opposition politicians said yesterday that the Comptroller and Auditor General's report showed continued waste of public resources and demanded better monitoring of Government spending.
Fine Gael transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said the report put a spotlight on historical financial mismanagement. However, there was a need for greater scrutiny before rather than after mistakes were made.
She said a number of issues stood out in the report. These included the fact that National Toll Roads owed the State €2 million in underpaid licence fees; the cost of the Special Savings Investment Account scheme, which grew from an estimated €127 million per year to €1.75 billion over five years; and the dismal performance of the Digital Hub project despite the spending of €35 million of public funds on it.
"These are merely some of the more glaring examples of a lack of planning, lack of accountability and lack of attention to detail that should protect the taxpayers' monies," she said.
"If we are to break the cycle of waste we need to make ministers more accountable for the budgets under their control, ditch the facade of Budget day that sees too many politically driven projects emerge uncosted, and finally let's start getting inquiries conducted before, rather than after, taxpayers' money has been committed."
Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said the report provided "further evidence of the extent of the tax evasion that a small number of people have been allowed to get away with for many years".
It also contained many examples of failure by the Government to exert proper management over the spending of public funds and to ensure that the taxpayer got value for money.
"The amount of money reported by the C&AG to have been raised by the Revenue Commissioners through its programme of special investigations, at more than €2 billion, is truly breathtaking", said Ms Burton.
"The Revenue is entitled to full credit for its successes in this regard, but the real irony is that those in the present Government who for years insisted that there was no 'pot of gold' out there are the ones who are benefiting from these returns."
However, the report, confirmed by the latest list of tax settlements, indicated that tax evasion continued to be a major problem, she said. The report also highlighted the great contrast between the way in which the State views social welfare fraud, as compared to tax fraud.
"The Department of Social and Family Affairs forwarded 476 cases to the Chief State Solicitor; 144 cases were taken to court and prison sentences imposed in 36. In the area of tax fraud, 57 cases were referred to the investigation and prosecutions division during 2004," Ms Burton said.
"Just 13 files were submitted to the DPP, convictions were obtained in just six cases and the only prison sentence imposed appears to have been suspended."
Green Party finance spokesman Dan Boyle said the report raised questions as to how many lessons were being learnt on the proper control of public expenditure.
He said the report raised plenty of questions that the Public Accounts Committee needed to ask itself, questions as to how it could be more than a body that historically reported the misuses of public funds and instead become a body that could intervene and protect the taxpayer from such expenditures occurring in the first instance.