FG claims Coalition failing to cut quangos

THREE-QUARTERS of State agencies due to be closed or merged following the emergency budget last April have escaped the “cull” according to Fine Gael.

Only 11 of the 43 agencies targeted have so far been closed or merged. Fine Gael enterprise, trade and employment spokesman Leo Varadkar said the Government had failed to meet its commitment to cut the number of “quangos”.

In most cases a target date for implementation of the cuts had still not been set, he said.

The Government had been quick to act against “soft targets” like senior citizens and children by removing medical cards and abolishing the early childcare supplement, he added.

“However, in stark contrast, progress on cutting the cost of Government and eliminating waste and duplication has been painstakingly slow.”

Reforms yet to be implemented include the amalgamation of the Censorship of Publications Board and its Appeals Board with the Office for Film Classification; abolition of the National Crime Council; subsuming of the National Council on Ageing and Older People into the Office of Older People in the Department of Health and Children; and the subsuming of the Women’s Health Council into the Department of Health and Children.

A Government spokesman said 18 of the 30 decisions required for the amalgamation of the bodies would be in place by the year-end. The remaining bodies would be rationalised next year, he said.

Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore has backed calls for a Dirt-style inquiry into the banking crisis.

Mr Gilmore said taxpayers were entitled to know who made the key banking decisions and the circumstances in which they were taken.

Earlier this week, economist Colm McCarthy suggested there was a need for such an inquiry modelled on the 1999 public accounts committee investigation into Deposit Interest Retention Tax (Dirt) evasion by banks.