OPINION:Our democracy is suffering from accumulated excesses, writes Brian Hunt.
PATRIOTISM. THAT is what Brian Lenihan called for when he delivered Budget 2009 last October. He asked that we all "pull together and play our part". But how does that valiant call to action measure against the actions of the Government in the period since the general election of May 2007?
Benchmarking was one result of our Government's excessive exuberance during the boom years. The result is that we now have a flabby Civil Service which does the same amount of work for much more money. The fact that the benchmarking process was so out of kilter with the real economy is demonstrated by the fact that public sector pay exceeds comparable private sector pay by 10 per cent for senior posts, and by up to 30 per cent for other grades, according to the ESRI's Winter 2008 Quarterly Economic Commentary.
The salaries of our politicians have also risen considerably. On top of their basic salary of €95,363, TDs receive generous expenses. In the first half of 2008, TDs and Senators claimed just under €6 million in expenses. TDs currently receive a daily allowance of €61.53 and an overnight allowance of €139.67 when the Dáil is sitting.
TDs also receive an allowance to cover the cost of travelling from their constituencies to the Dáil, and that ranges from €2,745 to €8,782. They also get a mileage allowance of €1.16 per mile.
The excesses are also evident from the growth in the number of Oireachtas committees. The number of joint committees of the Dáil and Seanad rose from 13 to 19 since the last general election. Similarly, the number of select committees of the Dáil has risen from 13 to 17. Where there are committees there are expenses. And where there is a committee there is a chair, and where there is a chair there is a vice-chair position.
And since the general election in 2007 there has been an increase in the number of Ministers of State, rising from 17 to 20 - each position carrying a burden for the exchequer of additional salaries, pensions, extra civil servants, State cars and drivers.
The flaithiúlach culture of the boom years also gave us decentralisation, on which, it is reported, €230 million has been spent so far. This points up what lies at the heart of the problem concerning Government policies in recent years: Government policy tends to be modelled around electoral cycles.
Take Special Savings Investment Accounts (SSIAs),
for example. Their introduction was announced in 2001 and the scheme was designed so that the bulk of them would mature in the run-up to the 2007 general election.
Now more than ever, the Government needs to adopt a longer-term view of the economy and society in general. If cuts are to be introduced, let them not be done with an eye to the local and European elections this summer.
If strategic decisions are to be made, let them not be influenced by the incumbent's electoral prospects in 2012 or even 2017. And if tough decisions need to be taken, let those decisions be made in the best interests of the nation and not on the say-so of interest groups and trade unions.
However, the indications so far would seem to suggest that the really tough decisions on our economic future will be taken by the unelected members of An Bord Snip Nua at the say-so of unelected trade union heads under the umbrella of "partnership". Not by our Taoiseach and his Cabinet.
One hardly needs to do much analysis to realise that public sector pay needs to be tackled through a combination of pay cuts and redundancies. Politicians' expenses ought to be capped at a modest proportion of their salaries. The number of Oireachtas committees should, at a minimum, be reduced to 13, and chair and vice-chair positions should not carry a salary. The number of Minister of State positions should be reduced to seven.
There has been an awful lot of talk of belt-tightening and tough decisions. We have seen neither at Government level.
• Dr Brian Hunt is head of public affairs at Mason Hayes+Curran