The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says scrutiny of the budget by TDs is under-developed by international standards, with the Cabinet in control “to the point of dominance”.
In a report published on Wednesday, the OECD proposed a series of reforms of the budget cycle’s “annual set-piece events” to allow parliamentarians to better influence and critique financial allocations and priorities.
Report co-author, Dubliner Ronnie Downes said Ireland did not have a good track-record on budget oversight. “We score pretty much at the bottom of the international rankings of the parliamentary engagement point of view,” he said.
“We haven’t tried to come up with some sort of one-size-fits-all abstract model of how a parliament should work, instead we’ve tried to come up with some tailored, practical, workable solutions.”
Among the OECD’s recommendations are that the annual estimates should be considered and voted on by the Dáil before the start of the budget year. Currently the Dáil vote takes place after the year has begun.
“In this context many stakeholders and participants question whether the budget scrutiny processes of the Houses of the Oireachtas and its committees are meaningful and impactful,” the report said.
Fine Gael TD David Stanton, who attended the launch, said the current estimates process was a “major rubber-stamping job, no outcome, a waste of time, basically”.
He said the report’s proposal for an Irish parliamentary budget office to equip TDs to engage more effectively on budgetary matters with policy costings and analysis of taxation and expenditure measures was “crucial”.
Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness said Government deputies were currently “just asked to nod” while Opposition members found it extremely difficult to get changes made to any piece of legislation or budgetary matter.
He queried whether or not the government off the day would give up the control it had of the processes that were in place. “The question here is, is the civil service up for the challenge?” he said.
“Is there political courage in this country to bring about the change that is necessary based on what is in this report so we can have greater accountability?”
Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett said the report, entitled ‘Review of budget oversight by parliament: Ireland’, would be “the Bible for the way forward” in terms of how the spending of public money was scrutinised.
“I sincerely hope this is not a report that will find its way onto a shelf and gather dust.”
