Minister vows to get tough on lagging departments

INTERVIEW:SOME GOVERNMENT departments have not "measured up" as well as others in delivering proposals on spending cuts, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said.

Although declining to name specific departments, he told The Irish Timesin an interview yesterday that some had been "more creative and more rigorous than others" in producing plans under the Government's comprehensive review of expenditure.

He would be making robust suggestions to those who were lagging behind and ultimately bringing proposals to Cabinet level, he said.

“All departments have reported, as they had been expected to. I can’t pretend that every department has measured up in exactly the same way.

“Some have been more creative and more rigorous than others. But I made it clear to every colleague Minister in the beginning of this process that everybody would be expected to contribute.

“I mean, what’s at stake here is our economic regeneration, our economic recovery, and we need to do what we need to do. We know we have the target of getting our deficit down to 3 per cent by 2015.

“We know we have the stepping stones on the way to that: next year the deficit target will be 8.6 per cent. We need to ensure that that target is reached – and we will ensure that that target is reached.

“And we need to ensure that, although the comprehensive expenditure review is not the totality of it, it has to make a significant contribution to achieving that deficit.”

Asked what would be done about departments which failed to measure up, he replied: “We will do what the Department of Finance traditionally did and the Department of Public Expenditure will do into the future: we will be making our own robust suggestions to them and ultimately we will be bringing our proposals to Cabinet.”

On political reform, the Minister said removing constitutional constraints would allow the Oireachtas carry out in-depth investigations of issues such as the collapse of the economy.

He said the constitutional amendment being put to referendum on October 27th, the same day as the presidential election and a separate referendum on judges’ salaries, would allow for such an inquiry.

If the amendment on the so-called Abbeylara judgment was passed, the door would be open for parliamentary committees to look into “the circumstances of the economic collapse of this country, to see how decisions were made at political level that cost this State so dearly”.

When it was put to him that other inquiries had been carried out, the Minister said these were not conducted by the Oireachtas.

“They were independent, external overviews, but again none that called witnesses in public, that asked questions that the public everywhere around this country were asking.

“But there would be many instances where a proper inquiry in accordance with the normal functioning of a parliament would be required. It obviously has to be checked and balanced, it can’t be a fishing expedition,” he said.

Pointing to the example of the British parliament and its examination of the phone-hacking scandal, Howlin said: “You see the speed at which a functioning parliament can call people in”.

In a letter sent to Opposition parties and the technical group as well as the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad on July 27th, Howlin said it was proposed to publish the Referendum Bill in early September.

He wrote that he was enclosing the draft wording “in light of the relatively short period of time that will be available for consideration of the Referendum Bill”. The final proposed wording would be the subject of further discussions with the Attorney General.

“There are very few, if any, parliaments that are as hamstrung as this parliament is, to investigate matters of public interest,” Howlin said.

Because of the Abbeylara judgment there has been “no meaningful probing of matters of public interest” by the Oireachtas. Following the shooting dead of John Carthy at his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford, during a stand-off with gardaí on April 20th, 2000, an investigation was authorised by the Justice Committee of the Oireachtas.

Gardaí took a successful High Court action and this effectively halted the investigation and any further Oireachtas probe where the good name of any citizen might be impugned.

The timetable was “very tight”, the Minister said yesterday. “I’ll be bringing proposals for legislation to the Government shortly; the general parameters of the proposal have been approved already by Government, in advance of the summer recess.”

He also said that what had become known as “the Howlin judgment” would be dealt with next year. Arising out of the Morris tribunal, the Supreme Court instructed Howlin to divulge the name of a person who gave him information regarding allegations of Garda corruption in Donegal (in the event, the source identified himself). It was intended to put that amendment in tandem with the referendum in the spring on children’s rights.

The Government is also setting up a constitutional convention, an idea proposed by Labour leader (now Tánaiste) Eamon Gilmore at the party’s national conference in Galway last year.

Discussions are taking place between Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Gilmore and Howlin and the structure and time frame for the convention will be set out in the coming Dáil term.

Asked if the exercise would be a costly one, the Minister said: “We hope not; we need to review the Constitution.”

He added that it was not yet decided whether the convention would be set up and chartered by his own department or the Department of the Taoiseach.

“The idea certainly would be to have it up and operational by the end of the first quarter of next year, that would be my ambition.”

Proposed Amendment

Draft wording of the proposed amendment to Article 15.10 of the Constitution:

“The Houses of the Oireachtas shall have the power to inquire into any matter of general public importance. In the course of such inquiry the Houses may investigate any individual and make findings in relation to their conduct. The conduct of such inquiries shall be regulated by law.

“The balancing of the rights of the individual with the public interest in the effective investigation of matters of general public importance by the Houses of the Oireachtas being of fundamental importance to the State, the conduct of such inquiries by the Houses of the Oireachtas shall be regulated by the Houses of the Oireachtas.”