Lenihan rejects call to publish advice

THE MINISTER for Finance has rejected a call for the publication of advice given to Government and said it was the “Minister who makes decisions” and he did not believe the “endless publication of advice will improve matters”.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton had asked if Brian Lenihan supported “accountability with consequences, which does not mean golden handshakes”.

“Does the Minister support publishing advice such that people can determine what advice was tendered and acted upon and such that there can be genuine accountability?”

Mr Lenihan replied: “When I refer to acting on advice, I do not do so to justify my decision. I arrive at decisions as a Minister. When I refer to advice I do so to rebut any suggestion of corruption, impropriety or listening to wrong representations.”

The Minister “is politically responsible for the decisions. The Minister has to take political responsibility in this House for decisions. Civil servants advise on these decisions but Ministers make the decisions.”

During a Dáil finance question about public sector reform, Mr Lenihan also accepted criticism that “the cult of the generalist has been glorified in our public services” and the “development of specialised knowledge and information is an important issue in departments”.

He said he had to go outside “conventional recruitment procedures” to recruit a bank analyst.